This Is How It Goes Down
by starbuckapollo
Summary: I have no idea where I'm going with this story. But It starts pre-mini and we'll go from there. It contains all characters but mainly Kara/Lee
1. Runaway

_Author's note: This is my first fic ever and I'__m just doing this for fun. I do not own the characters of bsg the belong to __Ronald D Moore and Universal._

_And being a fan of Pink I'm gonna name every chapter that I write to a title of one of her songs. I do not own __any of her songs as well. _

_Also English is not my native language so excuse me for writing mistakes and all that kind of stuff. Anyway hope you enjoy. _

**This is how it goes down.  
**  
_Chapter 1 : Runaway.__**  
**_  
_Chase the rainbows in my mind__  
__And I will try to stay alive__  
__Maybe the world will know one day__  
__Why won't you help me run away__  
__(Pink, runaway)__  
_  
Socrata Thrace was sitting at the table, a bottle of Virgon brew in front of her, a cigarette in her right hand and in her left hand she was holding a letter from the Caprica colonial veteran hospital. She was a former member of the Colonial marine corps and retired as a sergeant major.  
She was the kind of woman who believed that suffering was good for the soul and that fear gets you killed and anger keeps you alive. So she made sure that her daughter Kara Thrace learned that lesson well. Especially since her husband left her.  
The two pictures with a young mother and her little girl laughing and posing for the camera were the only proof of happier times, _now long forgotten _.

She heard the knocking on the door when she took another drag of her cigarette and called out.

"It's open"

Socrata looked up at the young blond woman who entered the room, dressed in her BDU's. It was her daughter Kara. She walked to the table, just stopped a few feet in front of it.

"Hello momma." Kara said.

Kara had just finished the Academy and flight school and was now one of the best viper pilots ever. Actually she was the best. She even beated the score from the perfect-by-the-book-flying Apollo. He had held the record in the sim's until a certain Kara Thrace sweped it away. She had heard a lot of Apollo, but never had she seen him.

Now she was here to visit her mother and tell her that she would serve on a battlestar named Triton under the command of Myron Ruth.

Her relationship with her mother wasn't exactly a by the book relationship. Ever since her father left everything went wrong. In the beginning it was just her hand that would slap her. Later her mother would become more resourceful, the door was one of those options for breaking fingers. Always saying that suffering was good for the soul, that she wasn't good enough. But now she had finally reached the moment were she could show her mother that she was wrong about her. She was better then her mother ever was, who only made it as a marine.

"so you really did it, first person in the family to become an officer." Socrata growled.

A small smile appearsed on Kara's face, but dissapeared as quickly.

"What is the world coming to." She answered in a mocking tone.

"Kara they tell me that you're the best natural pilot they've ever seen" Kara could hear the pride in the voice of her mother when she said those words. Altough her mother was trying not to show any of it. A smile appeared on Kara's face again.

"First time I got in that cockpit... I just...felt like I belonged." Kara said with a small smile on her face.

"all that natural ability, and still you only gratuated sixteenth in your class." Her mother interupted.

"sixteenth out of a 117 cadets, momma." Kara stammered.

"Why are you proud of that, you should have been number one." If she could kill with her eyes, she would have killed Kara right now, her voice rose with every word she said. "they tell me that you have left a trail of demerits up here to Aerilon, you're undisciplined, you have no respect for authority...'

"It's none of you're business anymore." Kara answered. her jaw thightening in that moment. She felt the anger rising up. Again her mother wasn't good enough. At least Kara wasn't the little girl anymore, her mother couldn't physicly hurt her anymore, but with her words she could still be lethal.

"you have a gift, Kara," I've always known that, here in my gut and I am not gonna let you piss that away. You're special don't you understand that?"

"No I'm not. Would you let go of that stupid dream of yours," Kara said viciously, "look, I'm sorry of hell that you never made officer, and all you have to show for a lifetime of deducation is this crappy apartment and that frakking medal on the wall. But I will not make up for it all. I can't."

"Yeah, because you're a quitter,'"she snapped, "you always have been."

Kara went silent at those last words. Not knowing where to look, except at her mother. Until her eyes felt on a letter from the Caprican Colonial Forces Veteran's Hospital on the table in front of her. She picked it up and started reading it. When she read that her mother had cancer, a small shiver went down her spine.

"You went to an oncologist?"

Socrata jumped up, "Hey, put that down. Don't touch that!"

"What you gonna do about this." Kara asked. Her relationship with her mother may be not the best but she never wished this for her mother.

"Nothing, there is nothing to do, it's metastasised. Game is over"

Kara pulled the chair from under the table, wanting to support her mother, not knowing how. "I'm sorry momma." With a slight hesitation she tried to lay her hand on her mothers.  
But in that moment Socrata pulled her hand away and growled, "I don't want your pitty."

Kara's eyes darted back to her mother, the anger clearly vissible, jaw tightening," you haven't got it." She said through gritted theeth.

"You wanne feel sorry for someone, feel sorry for yourself." Her mother said fiercly. "Now, I have to find another way to motivate you're ass. I'm not gonna be around to do it any longer."

Kara struggled not to cry, she felt the anger rise in the pit of her stomach. Normally Kara was very good at hiding her emotions. In public she could easely become Starbuck, the fearless viper pilot, but never with her mother. There she would always be Kara.

"Oh, don't tell me you're gonna cry about it now." She mocked.

"you know, I don't need this," she standed up voice angry, "I'm gonna walk out that door and you can look at it every frakking miserable day you have left and know that I'm never gonna come back trough it again!"

She walked out of the apartment hearing her mother yell her name "Kara, Kara!" She felt her breath catch and started running from the stairs out of the apartmenblock. Tears were running down her face now, she wiped them away with a sleeve of her BDU. She was done with her mother, so much had happened in all those years and every frakking time she came back, trying to give her mother another chance, hoping that she would change. But it will never happen. She would never be good enough for her mother.

After running several blocks Kara passed a woman running in the oppisite direction of her. She looked like the perfect girlfriend. Blond hair tied up in a tail with some loose strands, blue eyes. The woman was crying as well and for a short moment Kara had to smile at that image. The idea that she wasn't the only one who had a frakked up day made her feel a bit better.

When she turned the corner of the street, she saw a young man, with short brown hair, standing in he middle of the street. He was probably the reason the other woman was crying, she thought. For a moment she wanted to hit the guy for making the woman cry. But when she had a closer look she could see blue eyes staring at her with tears as well. Her thought of hitting him disappeard quickly, instead she just wanted to stop running and stand there next to him. Maybe even talk to him or better frak him, search comfort in each other. No, not this time. She was done looking for comfort in an other man. She had done that enough of times and it didn't really made her feel better the next day. She would handle this on her own.

So, she kept running.

xxx

Lee Adama was sitting outside of his house, a glass of ambrosia in his hand, waiting for his girlfriend to arrive. He never felt better then today. He just recieved a letter that he was accepted at war college and he would start in a couple of weeks. He was the youngest lieutenant ever who was accepted at war college, a lot of people thought that it was because of his father, commander Adama. But being one of the best of his year at the Academy made him earn his place at War College. And he didn't think that his father would try to pull some strings to get him accepted at War College, it was not like they had the best relationship. His father was mostly away, serving on his battlestar, _although that could change soon since his last mission wasn't such a succes, _so their relationship was a bit strained. He and his brother Zak were mostly raised by their mother, Carolanne. Their parents divorced whe Lee was eight.

It was actually his fathers dream that Lee and his brother Zak would become viper pilots. "A man isn't a man until he wears the wings of a viper pilot" was one of the sentences he heard the most of his father. So Lee followed in his footsteps and went to the Academy and after that to flight school. He had to admit, he loved flying and his fathers dream became his dream as well. But they always compared him to his father and Lee always tried to do better. Putting more pressure on him.

He saw Gianne turning the corner, walking in his direction and had to think how lucky he was that he had her in his life. She was perfect. She had white-blond hair and soft blue eyes. And gods, her smile could light up the sky. He had talked to her on the phone a few hours ago and she had some great news to tell him herself. "_She would probably be accepted at law school,'" _he thought. "Hey, honey;" he said with a smile when he saw her walking towards him."I've got some great news as well."

He kissed her full on the lips when she stopped in front of him.

"Hey, So what's the great news." she said smiling.

"I'm accepted at war college, I'll start in a couple of weeks."

He could see the smile on Gianne's face fade away the moment he told her about war college, feeling a small trickle of fear settling in.

She lifted her head to look him right in the eyes. A bit afraid for his reaction. "I'm pregnant Lee."

It was like he was hit by a bus. Did he hear it right? Was she _pregnant? _How could she be pregnant they were always carefull. "But...we were always...carefull." Lee said in disbelieve.

"I know Lee but it happened anyway, and I would be lying if I say that I don't want it" she looked right in Lee's eyes searching for the joy she felt when the test was positive. But seeing nothing of it in his eyes, only fear.

"Gianne, I'm not ready to become a father...Gods we even never talked about it, I thought we could at least enjoy a bit of our life, you know see if we...I can't be a father, not now."

At those words he saw Gianne pull away from him. Tears were in her eyes and she gave Lee one last look and then turned around and ran away from him. Out of his life.

Lee couldn't move, he wasn't ready to deal with a pregnant girlfriend. The fear of becoming exactly his father creeping in. If he wanted to raise kids, he wanted to do it right. He wanted to be there for his kids and not like his father, who was only a few weeks a year on Caprica, but now was not the time. He had it all perfectly planned out, first he would serve in the military and after that he would find a job at Caprica and then have kids.

He didn't know how long he was standing there , numb for everything that happened around him. Replaying wath just happened in his mind until he heard someone running in his direction. "_Is she coming back_," he thought. But when he looked up in the direction he saw a young blond woman in BDU's running. She wasn't slender or elegant and had nothing of resemblance with Gianne accept the blond hair, but even that was a bit darker and was cut short. But somehow he felt enchanted by her. He felt his heart skip a few beats when seeing her. It was something he never felt in his entire life, not even with Gianne. He could see she had cried and seeing her like that he just wanted to run with her, run away from everything. Maybe finding some solace in running with her.

But he stayed.

xxx

She heard the bell early in the morning and still a bit lightheaded from the champagne of the babyshower Laura went to the frontdoor still wearing her nightgown. She was wondering who it could be this early. It was very unlikely it would be one of her sisters, Ok they forgot the presents but even then they would never come this early, they weren't really morning persons. So when she opened the door she saw two police officers standing outside. Seeing the two police officers sobered her up instantly. Police at this hour of the day was never good news. The one who took the word was a dark skinned woman.

"Good morning. I'm officer Stephanie and this is officer Sean from the Caprica city Police. Are you Laura Roslin?"

_Good morning,_ Laura thought, _how in the hell could this be a good morning if the police is standing this early at the door.__  
_  
"Yes, I am."

"We need to speak with you. May we come inside?"

She gestured to the officers to enter. A thousand thoughts running trough her mind. The first thought of her two sisters, Cheryl and Sandra, drinking Champagne, laughing...

_"hahaha, That was a great shower. Goh. Oh My Gods. That was amazing. Just gonna clean up a little bit here."_

_"Ok, Laura no cleaning," Cheryl said, bottle of champagne in her hand._

_"Oh, just a little"_

_"No, this is the last bottle. And you and I have to share it. You promised me that you would finish all the champagne"_

_"Alright, Boy we drank a lot . Well, they did "_

_"What about me?" Sandra asked. _

_" Euh, No pregnant girls only gets gifts."_

_"Just a sip"_

_"A sip, oke, just one, a little. Good. Stop, enough. Oh my gosh"_

_"That was lovely, Laura. Thank you" Sandra said._

_She puts her arm around her pregnant sister, sitting in the sofa next to her sister "Well, it's the least I can do for my little sister"_

_" Hey I thought I was you're little sister" Cheryl smiled_

_"Ok, You are my very little sister. Oh, boy. How about that woman with Mrs Anderson. Hahaha. Why did she even bring those" Laura shrieked._

_"What was that" her youngest sister asked._

_"I don't know, but there's always one"_

The dark skinned officer started to talk again the moment they were seated.

"We're so sorry, we're here to inform you there has been some terrible accident. Late last night your sisters and father were all killed. We weren't able to verify the identy of the bodies until a few hours ago. The driver of the other vehicle is in stable condition and.. preliminary tests indicate that he was intoxicated when he side flanked the car with your father and your sisters."

"Thank you, can you show yourselfs out?" Laura said.

"We're sorry for your loss" The two officers rose and left the apartment leaving Laura alone in her grieve.

She felt numb, she never could have thought that she would lose her whole family at once. How could she deal with this. Her sisters and her father gone, their lives taken, the little life in her sisters belly ended. She had no one left. Her mother died a few years ago of breast cancer. She started to clean the stuff that was still lying on the table from the shower. She couldn't wrap her thoughts around it. She was twisting and turning in her house, until her eyes felt on the photo from her and her two sisters and her father taken on their last summer vacation. It was such a hot summer, that when it started to rain they went outside and kissed the rain as a thank you. Seeing that picture she knew what she had to do. She left her house and walked to the fountain that was in the middle of the apartmentblocks. When she was standing at the fountain, she couldn't fell the comfort she hoped she would get. So she wandered in the water towards the sprinklers feeling the water on her face falling down. People were looking at her, like she was a crazy woman. She even heard a woman say something like that, but she didn't care. All she wanted was some peace. She strolled towards the rocks in the middle of the fountain and leaned against it. She opened her arms and let the water drop on her face like the rain and she kissed it like they did on that day.

Feeling closer to them.

xxx

Bill Adama was sitting in an office, he was the commander of the batltlestar Valkyrie at least for now. They were going to give him a civilian desk job after the complete failure of his last mission.

It was top secret and when it went wrong he would have to take full responsibility. The military had send him on a recon mission to see if there was any possibility for a cylon strike. Their were still people who believed that the cylons never really left after the war and were building a war machine. His precise mission was to escort a stealth recon ship passed the Armisticeline to gather information and see if there was any suspicious activity. He only trusted his best pilot in the stealth ship past the Artimisline, his name was Bulldog and he could outfly most of the pilots at the fleet. Everything went well until there were unknown vessel that jumped in and fired a missile at the stealth ship.

_"Stealthstar, Valkyrie. We register you on dradis just passed Armistice"_

_"Valkyrie, Bulldog. I'm exactly to clicks passed the line, repeat two clicks and I have no interfere on dradis contact. There's nothing here, sir, wich is fine by me. Company wants to play the joy ride they came to the right driver. Hell of a moon." Bulldog said._

_"Dradis-contact, unknown vessel just jumped in"_

_seconds later Bulldogs plane was hit by a missile. _

_"Frak, Krypter, krypter, krypter, I got damage the port engine. Bird is down, repeat bird is down. Request rescue. krypter, krypter, krypter..."_

_"Two more dradis-contacts. Please instruct. What are you're orders , sir? Sir, what are you're orders." his communication officer asked. _

_"Don''t do this, think about it Bill, you don't want to do this," colonel Thigh said. He knew what Bill was going to do. _

_"Do you want his ship discoverd. Do you now were we are? Do you have any idea what this could mean?" Bill answered._

_"bogeys on intercept course, will merge with stealthstar at 20 seconds"_

_Bill grabbed the phone from the comm's , "weapons, launch ship to ship missile, now."_

_and the missile was send to kill his best pilot, to prevent that the cylons would find him. _

And now he was here, trying to explain that he still could command a battlestar after this last mission. He wasn't made for an office, he was a commander. It was not that his carrier in the military would be over. He would just be transfered and would stay planet side. Hell, he would even earn more then that he earned now. It was that or he would be send to Battlestar Galactica, an old ship that would be decommissioned in a few years. And if he would serve on the Galactica it would be more a graceful way of sending him in retirement. The only bright side at the office job was that he could see both his sons more. He had heard that his eldest son, Lee, was a very talented viper pilot and his younger brother, Zak, was just going to start. But he wanted to keep command on his battlestar Valkyrie.

"I commanded Two Battlestars, three escortes, before it happened." Bill said.

"Come on, Bill. Don't be like that. There's nothing to get upset about. " the man on the other side of the desk said.

"Billions of cubits worth of equipment trusted to me and not to mention a thousand of lifes"

"its one hour of you're life. Look sometimes there things you just gotta do, alright. You just have to do the test after it's done you can go home."

"alright. I'll do it." Bill mutters.

Bill hated the thought that he would have to do a lie detector test, to see if he was trust worthy. He moved to the chair and wires were being attached to him. When everything was set and done they started with the frakking lie detector test.

"is you're name William Adama?"

" yes"

" are you an officer in the colonial fleet?"

"yes"

"are you a cylon"

His eyes looked with venom to the man. Were they really asking if he was a cylon? The one and true enemy, the ones he fought against in the war, seeing kill them thousands of people, the reason that he was here now and yet they had the guts to ask him if he was a cylon.

" I'm sorry, but we're still establishing tests for the control. I need verifiable yes and no's "

"No, I'm not a cylon"

"Have you ever stolen money from a cash drawer,"The man started to repeat the question again when Bill didn't answer. " have you ever stolen..."

"Enough of this crap. Take this thing of me right now. No job is worth this, no matter how fat the pay cheque is. I rather spend the rest of my carrier or what's left of it on a broken down old ship then have someone sit here and question my word" and Bill Adama walked out.


	2. The One That Got Away

**The One That Got Away****  
**  
_You were mine__  
__Somewhere in time__  
__I'll look for you first__  
__In my next life___

_There's always one that gets away__  
__The one that sneaks up on you that slips away__  
__Slips away__  
__In a closed off corner of my heart yeah yeah yeah yeah__  
__I I'll always see your face__  
__The one that got away__  
__(Pink, The One That Got Away)_  
_  
_Major Fisk was sitting at his desk. It was his last day at the base. He would go serve on Battlestar Pegasus under the command of Commander Cain. But he had one last thing to do. Which was to point a certain lieutenant Thrace on her rank in the military. Apparently she had offended her commander of the Battlestar Triton and he was going to file some charges against her. He was able to prevent that, because he had read Thrace's file and she was a brilliant viper pilot. And he couldn't let a pilot like her being court-martialed. So he convinced the commander to drop the charges and in return he would deal with Thrace.

"Enter." he called out when he heard a soft knock on the door.

Kara entered the room. She knew it wasn't a good idea to hit her commander, but she couldn't help it. That day she had received the news that her mother had died. And although she had said that she never would come back, she still had some regret that she never was there on the side of her mother's bed when she died. And especially that day her commander had to ride her ass so hard, so she snapped and hit him with her well known right hook. If it had been any other day she would have sucked it up, but not that day. So, she had spend a few days in the Tritons brick and was now probably facing charges. Gods, she hoped not, because that would mean that her carrier in the military would be over. That she could never fly a viper again, the one thing she was born to do.

"Major Fisk, sir" Kara saluted

"Lieutenant Thrace, take a seat"

Kara walked to the chair in front of the desk and took place.

Commander Fisk began again, "So, I heard you don't respect authority. I have a complaint from commander Ruth that you hit him with no reason. Do you care to explain yourself lieutenant?"

"I have no explanation for it, sir." Kara answered. She would rather face the consequences then tell him that the reason she had hit him was the death of her mother. Because then he would be asking questions about her mother and she didn't want to tell anyone about that part of her life. That part of her life was done.

"You haven't or won't give it."

"haven't, sir."

" I've read your file Lt. Thrace it's not like he is the first you hit. There are others as well, some fellow pilots. Now fights between pilots is not uncommon, but you are the first officer I have met that hit her own commander."

"I know what I've done was wrong, sir. So I will face the consequences, sir" Kara muttered

"Good, because I read your file lieutenant and it seems that you're quiet some viper pilot. The highest grate ever in sims. So it would be a shame if we lose an asset like you. That's why you're going to share your flying skills with other people."

Kara felt relieved when she heard that she wouldn't be facing charges. Gods, she could even keep flying.

Major Fisk continued, " so you're going to teach basic flight at flight school. But if you frak up again, you're out. understood. I lobbied a lot for you to keep you in the military."

"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir" kara said.

_Frak, she thought. I have to teach some nuggets how the fly. Well, you reap what you sow, Thrace._

But everything was better than being thrown out of the military. If she could only fly when she would teach at flight school then she would.

"You'll start in two weeks, so you better go pack and report at flight school at 1500. Dismissed."

and with that Kara rose out of the chair, saluted Fisk and walked out of his office to go pack and report to the Academy. Teaching some frakking nuggets.

xxx

Lee Adama was at flight school. He had promised his brother to help him install his room. Zak was going to start this year. Lee strongly doubted that Zak would succeed at flying a viper. He barely made it through the Academy, always on report for some infraction of the rules, always a few steps away from being bounced out. So, when Zak applied for flight school it was turned down. Until his father had made a few phone calls and Zak was in. That made the relation between Lee and his father even more strained then it already was. Lee was pissed at his father. He had found it unacceptable that his father had pulled some strings to let his youngest son join flight school. He had tried to talk his brother out of it, to study something else. But unlike Lee, Zak worshipped his father and he would do anything to become him. So Lee hoped for the best.

"Frak, Zak. How many of those boxes did you bring. It's like you are going to live here the rest of your life."

"Hey, don't mock with me Lee. I want to be prepared for everything."

"Ok, you can be prepared but it's like you robbed our house." Lee grinned

"yeah, yeah. I know, which remind me of something. I forgot a box in the car. can you unpack these Lee, I'll get the other one."

"oh, no. I'll get the box, you can unpack. It's your stuff and I'm not gonna put it away for you"

"Ok, fine. I'll unpack, you get the other box." Zak muttered.

xxx

Kara arrived at the academy in the midday. She parked her car in front of the entrance, then she didn't have to walk to far with her stuff. When she walked in the direction of the entrance, she saw another man unloading a box out of a car. He looked nice, she thought by herself. Short brown hair, body of an athlete, he looked like the man she saw when she was running away from her mother.

And then it hit her. It was the same man. It was strange she never really met him, but somehow the guy had crept under her skin and since that day she had to think a lot of him. She even had some nice dreams involving him. And she always felt a sting of disappointment when she woke up and realised it was just a dream. And now he was here unloading a box out of his car, the Gods giving her the chance to speak to him. She was on her way to him when she realised that she only had ten minutes left to report at flight school and she didn't want to come in late. With heavy feet Kara turned around and walked away from the man _in _her dreams in the other direction. Maybe after that she had reported for duty she could try.

Kara walked to the office of the major and knocked on the door of his office.

A faint "Come in," could be hurt from the other side of the door. Kara entered the room and saluted. She was surprised when she saw the major. She had thought that he would be older and fatter, like most of the majors she knew. But instead it was a man begin thirties, his short brown hair wasn't lying perfectly combed but looked a bit messy. His nose was a bit sharp and his eyes were grey-brown, _not like him, she thought. _But he was an attractive man nonetheless.

"Lt. Thrace reporting for duty, sir" Kara said.

"Major Vaughn, take a seat Lt. Thrace." He smiled at her and took a seat himself. "I've received a phone call from major Fisk this morning, he told me that you would be our new flight instructor."

"I am, sir." Kara felt a bit nervous, she hoped that he wouldn't lecture her about her responsibilities now that she was known for hitting her commander.

"He told me, that you're here because you had hit your superior."

_And here we go, Kara thought_

"But he also told me that you're an amazing pilot." Vaughn continued, "And I know commander Ruth, he has a way to bring the worst in people up." he said with a small smile.

She felt the nerves she had disappear and returned the smile. "Well, it still was no reason to hit him, sir."

"That is true lieutenant." Vaughn smirked, "So, let's go to the topic of the day. You are going to teach basic flight. Here is the list with all your students." he handed Kara a map with names on it.

The first name she read was Adama Zak. She had heard a lot of commander Adama and felt the nerves rise up again. There would be lying more pressure on her than she had thought. They always watched guys like Zak more closely, to make sure that they were doing well. They couldn't let a son of a commander fail. She wanted to look further when major Vaughn spoke up again.

"I know that it's a lot, but half of them will be out at the end of the year, not everyone is cut out for vipers."Vaughn said, "If you have any questions just shoot."

"No, sir. Everything is clear."

"Good, then I will show you around and introduce you to some other teachers. I'm the head of flight school by the way. So if you have any problems you come to me."

"I will, sir" Kara answered.

xxx

He was walking in the direction of the mess hall, gods he was so hungry. After bringing in the last box to Zak's room Lee went in search to find some food. That's when he saw her again. She was walking in her BDU's again, following another man. It was strange he only saw her once, but since the day he saw her running, he had to think a lot about her.  
The worst part was that he never really missed Gianne, but damn he had missed her.

The day after Gianne left Lee had tried to find her, had wandered a bit in the streets in the hope that he would see her again. He never did. And now she was their maybe 100 ft away from him. He sure as hell didn't want to miss this opportunity. He was on his way to her when he saw her enter a room. He stopped in front of the door reading 'TEACHER'S ONLY'. _Frak,_ he couldn't go in there. Hehad to wait until she was done. Fine then he would go after food first and try again later.

Lee had finally grabbed some food, when he heard his phone ring. He paused and picked up his phone.

"Lee Adama." he said

"Lee, It's Zak. Where are you."

"I'm on my way to your room, why?"

"Mom called, she wants us to come over for dinner. She will expect us in two hours, so we better hurry. Something with her new boyfriend she wants us to introduce to." Zak said tediously.

_Frak, Lee thought_.

Why did his mother have to pick this day to introduce them to her new boyfriend. "Fine. I'm on my way." Lee said annoyed and ended the call. He hated the idea that he would once again miss the chance to speak to her again. On his way back to Zak, Lee made a detour passed the 'Teachers Room', hoping that maybe she would just leave when he would pass there. But when he moved past the room the door was still closed. With disappointment clearly visible on his face, Lee walked to Zak's room.

Lee arrived at Zak's room, still mad at his mother for her 'great timing' once again.

"Hey, Lee. Seems like it was a waste of time to look for food, since mom asked us." Zak mocked

"yeah, whatever." Lee shrugged

"Hey, don't blame me. I'm not the one who asked to go to dinner. And it is not something that stands on my favourite thing to do list either."

"I know Zak, it's just...I had other plans."

"Plans? Like what? Are you going to a party I don't know of, or even better you have a date that you don't want me to know of. Gods Lee, it's about time that you started dating again. Ever since Gianne left your just so tight up."

Lee felt the anger rise up. "You leave Gianne out of this. Ok Zak. I don't want to hear her name ever again." Lee had tried to call her a few times since she ran away, he even went to her house and that of her parents but she never picked up the phone or opened the door for him so he eventually gave up.

"Fine, I'll leave her out of it" Zak said with his hands raised in surrender, " But can you at least look a bit happier, I don't think mom would be happy if she sees you like this."

"I'm sorry, Zak. I just have a lot on my mind."

_Like the blond girl I saw running and is now here in the teachers room a few clicks away from me and still I don't have the chance to talk to her_. _Lee thought. __  
_  
"It's ok, Lee. I know that the last couple of weeks have been hard for you." Zak said in a sympathetic voice.

"It's ok Zak. So you're ready? Because mom will have our asses if we are too late." Lee said, trying to enlighten the mood they were evolving in.

"Yeah, I am. Come on." Zak putted his arm loosely around his brother's shoulders and they both walked out.

When they walked through the corridors Lee scanned the rooms one last time in the hope that he would see her. And when they entered the parking lot and Lee still hadn't seen her he felt the hope convert to sadness. Lee started the car and left the parking, looking one last time in his rear-room mirror.

But he didn't see her.

xxx

_Frak, Kara thought. _

It had taken much longer than expected. Almost everyone of the teachers were there and they all wanted to welcome her personal. So, instead of a half hour, like she hoped it would be, it was more like two hours later. She hoped the guy would still be here. At least he wasn't a teacher, of that she was sure when he wasn't there with the rest of the squadron to greet her. So, that basically left one option open, he was a student. which wasn't much better, because teachers weren't allowed to have relationships with students. But one step at a time. First she had to find him.

Kara walked through the corridor of the students, she remembered this place so well. Gods, she only was here last year graduating with the highest flying score ever. Her teachers had told her that she was a natural, destined to fly. The funny thing was that she never really wanted to go to the Academy and after that flight school. She wanted to play Pyramid on a professional level. But her school record wasn't that great that she would get a scholarship for college. So, when she was looking for a solution she discovered that the Academy had one of the best Pyramid teams on college level. And thanks to her mother, who had served in the cylon war, she had a place at the Fleet Academy if she wanted. So she entered the Academy with the thought to resign after she served her years.

But then some idiot had tackled her during a Pyramid game and shattered her whole knee. They had tried to fix her knee as best as possible, but told her that her career in Pyramids would be over. So she took the entrance exam for flight training and that is where she discovered her love for flying, it was better than Pyramid ever could be to her. It gave her a freedom she never felt before, flying was the only thing in her life where she wasn't a screw-up. So she became the best pilot in the entire fleet beating all the records, she was a natural.

And now looking for a guy she only saw twice but remembered so well.

She didn't find him in the corridor of the students. _Maybe in the mess hall, she thought._ So she went to the mess hall, searching for him, but he wasn't there either. There weren't much places left. Of course there were the classrooms and the gym, but she was sure he wouldn't be there. Students weren't even allowed there now. The only place left were the toilets and she wasn't that desperate to go look over there. Or maybe she was , it was her proud that wasn't. So when she ran out of places to look, Kara wandered to her room to unpack her stuff. All hope of finding him gone. Until she realised that he had a car standing outside. She turned in her steps and walked as fast as she could to the parking lot. She would have ran, if the corridors weren't full of people.

_If the car was still there, he would still be here, somewhere. She thought. _

When Kara left the entrance of flight school, she looked for the car, but the spot where the car stood was empty.

She had missed him.

xxx

William Adama was on his new Batllestar Galactica. After he refused to do the lie detector test he was transferred to the Galactica. It was an old Battlestar that had served during the cylon war it was one of the few ones that still was active after the cylon war. There were only three other Battlestars from the cylon war active and the other two would soon be send on retirement. The newer ones were bigger in size and firepower, they also were more advanced, they were all linked to a computer network now. Designed by a guy named Gaius Baltar. Galactica didn't have it and never will. Bill refused to link Galactica to the network, he was still sceptical about computers. And after what he had seen at his last mission he was afraid that the cylons would return. A network would give them the chance to infiltrate the defence system. He had tried to convince admiral Nagala of that, but he neglected it. Saying that the cylons wouldn't return.

The only people who believed Bill were on the Galactica serving under him. One of them was his CO and best friend colonel Saul Thigh. He also had served under his command on Battlestar Valkyrie and had followed Bill to the Galactica. Never leaving his side. Always supporting him, no matter what decision he made.

_"40? I never paid more __than 30 on Picon." Saul said. _

_It was obvious to Bill that Saul was drunk, but Bill didn't really realize it, because he had his fait share of shots as well. He was with Saul and his wife Ellen in a striptease bar. Usually Bill would never go to such bars, but Saul had convinced him to go anyway. To celebrate his new job, he had said. So Bill went with Saul and Ellen to this bar. _

_"This ain't Picon" The dancer answered._

_"Ah, alright you got me there. This ain't Picon. Alright. 40."_

_"Show him a good time." Saul said to the dancer._

_"I don't want a lap dance, Ok" Bill muttered._

_"Try it, you'll like it." Saul said._

_"Keep the forty he deserves it, thank you." Bill said to the dancer. _

_"So you're gonna take the job or not?"Saul asked Bill_

_"Maybe I should just do it. Letting my pride get in the way." Bill said and he took another shot, feeling the liquor run through his veins. _

_"Now, you're talking. Who cares? It is one hour of your time and then you have a whole new life, a life without midnight watches, or drills, or fleet politics, inspections or any of that crap. Life, hehe, You get to be here every night."_

_"He won't be here every night," Ellen interrupted with three more shots for them, "you barely getting him here once." Ellen raised her glass and toasted, "to retirement."_

_"what do you say now." Saul said, pointing his index finger at Bill._

_"To retirement." Bill toasted._

_"yeah, yes" Saul and Ellen cheered, drinking their shot. _

_"Wow, you're fired up." Saul said after Ellen gave him a passionate kiss. _

_"You ain't seen nothing yet, help me up boys, help me up." Ellen said and they both helped her on the platform for the dancers._

_"Yeah, look at that, she's the finest kind my Ellen, the finest kind." Saul shouted, while Ellen was dancing on the platform_

_"You wouldn't do it." Bill interrupted after a few moments._

_"For that kind of money, for the gods I would."_

_"No, you wouldn't. Look me in the eye and tell me that you do it." Bill shouted, "Would you do it for a civilian desk job. I wanne hear it to come out from your mouth. Say it!"_

_Saul didn't say anything, just looked at Bill and then at his wife who was still dancing on the stage. _

_"I frakking new it." And Bill took another shot, drinking himself in oblivion. _

One of the other men Bill was proud of to have on board was his chief of the deck, Gaylon Tyrol. He was a man that had authority and respect from his deckhands. Always knowing where the problem was. He was a man who knew his job. Bill had found it a bit strange that a man with so much experience served on Galactica. So he had asked the Chief about it.

_" Chief Tyrol, take a seat, do you want a drink." Adama asked taking the bottle of Ambrosia in his hands_

_" yes, Thank you, sir." Tyrol said _

_"I was wondering why you serve on an old ship like Galactica, instead of the new Battletars," Adama began, "I have never seen a Chief that did his job with so much passion, you could get a job on every Battlestar if you want. Now I know that I could have read you're file but I want to hear it from you."_

_Tyrol shifted in his chair and started to talk. "I was reassigned to the Galactica, sir."He paused for a moment, trying to think how to continue. " I served on Battlestar Colombia before, until one of the viper pilots was killed in the launch tube. His plane had caught fire, due to a valve that wasn't properly set. I was the one responsible for the accident because I cleared it for launch. They didn't want to end my carrier, because of my record, but they reassigned me to Galactica. So that's why I'm here sir."_

_Bill felt a small smile settling on the corner of his mouth. " Apparently the Galactica is the ship for the frak-ups." Bill laughed. The chief had to laugh with him. He had heard the story of why Adama was put here._

_"To frak-ups." Chief toasted_

_"To frak-ups." Bill toasted._

Yes, he was actually happy that he was the commander of this old bucket. Even if it meant the end of his career.

xxx

Since the death of her sisters and father, Laura felt lost. She had tried to pick up her life and was teaching again, but it wasn't the same anymore. The teacher, Laura Roslin, who won the Teacher of the Year prize, was gone. The passion and love she felt when she was teaching gone. The fire in her eyes when she shared some of her knowledge with her students was gone. She didn't dislike it or hated it, but it was like when she was teaching now, it didn't reach its destination like it used to. She had lost her purpose, teaching didn't feel like her destiny anymore, like it once felt.

The funny thing was that a few days after the death of her sisters Mayor Richard Adar had called her and asked her if she wanted to join his campaign for president. Apparently winning the award of Teacher of the Year had caught his attention and someone like Laura would be a fine addition to his staff. When he called with that question Laura was so angry, not really on him, but on life in general. So she wasn't really kind on the phone. That call had made her even more angry at life, she may have lost everything but the world still spinned madly on. But now after a couple of weeks she had some time to think about it and she was heavily considering it. Especially now that she didn't feel the joy in teaching anymore.

_Maybe it was time to try something else, she thought._

Laura picked up the phone and called the cabinet of Adar.

"Hello, this is Laura Roslin, is it possible to talk to Mayor Adar?"

"Yes, just a minute. I'll put you through." the woman on the other line said.

"This is Mayor Adar speaking, what can I do?"

"Hi, this is Laura Roslin, you called me a couple of weeks ago with the question if I wanted to join your staff."

"Yes, I remember and I also remember that you weren't interested. You made that quiet clear."

"I know, and I want to apologise for that. I wasn't really myself that day."

"It's Ok, I heard that you had lost your sisters and father a few days earlier. I'm sorry. I didn't know at that time. But if you call to apologise it's not necessary, I understand..."

"No, that's not why I called, at least not the main reason." Laura interupted; " I was wondering if that offer still stands?"

"Yes, it still does. If you're still interested you can come by the office tomorrow."

"I will do that. Thank you."

"You're welcome and I'll be expecting you."

And Laura ended the call, ending one part of her life and beginning a new.


	3. God is a DJ

**God is a DJ.**

_You take what you get and you get what you give_  
_I say don't run from yourself, man, that's no way to live_  
_I've got a record in my bag you should give it a spin_  
_Lift your hands in the air so that life can begin_  
_(Pink God is a DJ.)_

Bill Adama was at flight school, he was waiting outside the office of major Vaughn. It was almost the end of the school year and major Vaughn had asked Bill if he could come by to talk about Zak. He hadn't really told him on the phone what the problem was, but told Bill that it was about Zak and his further career as a pilot. Bill had asked if Vaughn couldn't say it over the phone, but the major had insisted to do it in his office. That made Bill a bit suspicious, he never had to come to flight school for Lee. He just hoped that Zak didn't do anything stupid.

Bill saw the door of Major Vaughn's office opening. A young man stepped out of it followed by major Vaughn. "I'm sorry Costanza, but you frakked up to many times, you're out." Vaughn said to the guy. "You can go pack your stuff."

Bill saw the nugget stroll away when major Vaughn directed his attention to him.

"Commander Adama," Vaughn said saluting him. "Major Vaughn, please come in."

"Major Vaughn." Bill saluted.

Bill followed Vaughn into his office and settled in the seat in front of his desk.

"Do you want something to drink, sir. I have a great scotch."

"That would be nice major, thank you." Bill said, thinking that he will probably need the it when the major will bring him the news that they have to throw Zak out of flight school as well. Gods and he even had pulled some strings for that. Although he would never admit that.

Vaughn poured two drinks and settled in the chair behind his desk. Bill could see that the major was a bit nervous. _Frak, he thought. Zak really must have frakked it up badly. _Bill couldn't wait much longer, if it was bad then maybe it was better to cut it to the chase, leave out all the sweet talk. "So, what did Zak do, that is so bad that you wanted to speak to me in person." Bill asked.

"I'm sorry, sir" Vaughn said a bit confused. He didn't really know what Bill was referring to. Zak was a good student, maybe not the best, but he tried hard. The only problem was that he wasn't a good viper pilot and never will be.

Bill saw the confusing on the other man's face and that unnerved him even more. So he asked again, making himself very clear. " Look major, I know Zak isn't really a boy scout, so whatever he did major you can tell me, I can handle the truth."

"Oh, commander. I think you're mistaken. Zak didn't do anything wrong. He really tries hard to become as good as you and his brother." Vaughn said realizing that the commander really had no idea how a bad pilot his son was.

"So, why am I here than." Bill asked confused.

"I wanted to talk to you about Zak and his career as a viper pilot. I know that you want him to graduate as a pilot. But honestly commander Adama, if we do that we will be making a mistake. Zak hasn't got the talent like Lee or you, he isn't cut out to fly vipers."

"What do you mean isn't cut out." Bill asked. From all the screenplays he saw in his head that wasn't the one. He had asked Zak a few times about his flying and his son was always talking so enthusiastic about it. Saying that he loved it, that he couldn't wait to fly in real vipers. He even told Bill that his instructor was so great and that was something Zak rarely did, normally he hated teachers. So Bill was confident that Zak would be a fine pilot.

"Zak hasn't got the skills to fly a viper." Vaughn clarified, thinking that Bill didn't understand.

"I did understand that part Major, I thought he was doing great, I talked to him a few times he said everything went well."

"I think Zak wasn't completely honest with you, his instructor has tried her best to learn him to fly the best she could, but she said it was hopeless, she said Zak will never have the feel for it. She said that she will have to fail him..."

"Can I talk to her." Bill interrupted.

"Euhm, yes." Vaughn said a bit caught off guard. "But she won't change her opinion about it and I trust her judgement." It was true, the past year Vaughn had come to know Kara really well. They became very good friends and he would trust his life to her. He knew she had had a hard childhood, he figured some of these parts out when they were talking, although she never really said it, he could read it between the lines. But nevertheless Kara was someone trust worthy and she knew who were cut out for it and who weren't.

"I don't want to talk her out of it, I trust her opinion, I just want to talk to her, Zak told me a lot about her, said she was the best. I want to see that myself."

"Ok, you can probably find her on the air base. She's always there after her teaching hours."

"Thank you, major Vaughn. It was nice to meet you."

"Likewise, sir."

xxx

Kara was working on one of the vipers at the air base. She was here a lot after her teaching hours, trying to fly as much as possible. And the days that she couldn't fly, she would work on them. She never would have thought at the beginning of the year that she would start to like it here. She never had seen herself as a teacher but it wasn't that bad after all, she loved it, not like flying, nothing could compare to that, but it gave her what she needed now. For the first time in her life she had found a place where she felt somehow home.

She was almost finished working on the vipers when she heard some footsteps approach. She could see the slacks of a BDU from under her viper.

"Are you Lt. Thrace?" A husky voice asked.

Kara crawled from under the viper, the dirt from the viper all smeared over her face, clothes and hands. When she saw the pins of a commander pinned on his BDU she saluted him "Yes, sir. I am."

Bill could immediately understand why Zak was so full of his instructor. When he saw the young blond woman standing before him.

"I'm commander Adama, Zak's father."Bill saluted.

"I know, sir. Zak told me a lot about you. I'm sorry but I have to fail him and I will not change my mind about it." Kara said to the old man. Thinking that he was here to talk her out of it.

She was staring right at him, when she noticed the blue eyes of the man. The images of the man she only saw twice popped up in her mind again. She had thought that she would forget the man in time, but he was burned on the retina of her eyes.

"Don't need to explain anything. Zak has told me a lot about you, what you've done for him to help him in viper."

"I did my job, sir."

"You did more than your job and I want to thank you for being so honest with me about Zak. I know that a lot of the instructors would have passed him, because he's the son of a commander. I should have known that Zak wasn't cut out for it. He barely made it through the Academy, but I did some calls to let him have a spot at flight school anyway." Bill admitted.

"I know, Zak told me about that. And he did everything to not let you down. But he isn't cut out for it. I told him that he should try raptors. He said he would think about it."

"So, you told Zak that you're gonna fail him." Bill asked surprised.

"Yes, sir. I didn't want him to give false hope."

Bill started to like the young lady more and more every second. Most officers were impressed by him, but she wasn't. Bill saw a fire in Kara's eyes he remembered so well, but rarely saw. It was the fire he once had when he was a viper pilot.

"Can I ask you something, Lt. Thrace." Kara nodded so Bill continued. "Why are you here at flight school teaching, when you are one of the best pilots in the fleet?"

"I was transferred here, because I had hit my commander, sir."

"I see," Bill frowned, "what would you think if I offer you a place at the Battlestar Galactica." Bill asked.

It took a few moments for Kara to realize what Bill just asked. Was he asking her to serve on the Galactica, working on a Battlestar again. She may have started to love the place here and the teaching, but she missed flying. And yes she could fly here as well, but it wasn't the same. She missed flying in space feeling the freedom of it, being alone with her and her viper.

"I would be honoured , sir." Kara smiled.

xxx

Lee was in a bar accompanied by his brother Zak. Lee had just finished war college and was asked if he wanted to become a test pilot. Lee immediately said yes, only the best were asked to be a test pilot. And Lee wanted to be the best, better than his father ever was. He didn't want to be compared to his father at all.

Lee and Zak were both seated at the bar with a beer in front of them when Zak spoke up.

"They are gonna fail me on basic flight," Zak mumbled so still that Lee had to bow his head in Zak's direction. And still hadn't heard half of it.

"What?" Lee asked.

"They're gonna fail me on basic flight, Lee." Zak almost yelled, a few people looked up and watched in their direction."I'm not gonna be a viper pilot, like dad wanted. He will be so disappointed. Especially since he had to make a few calls to let me in anyway. Guess you were right Lee."

"Hey, Zak. I wish that I was wrong. I know you really wanted to become a pilot. And dad will understand."

"You don't know that, Lee. You know dad, he was always talking about a man isn't a man until he wears the wings of a viper pilot." Zak said imitating his father.

"Gods, Zak will you let go of dad and his stupid believes." Lee said angrily. He really hated his dad for putting so much pressure on them. Always wanting the best of them, even if they weren't cut out for it and Zak wasn't. Lee knew that from the beginning.

"It's true isn't it." Zak shouted. "Dad will never be proud of me, I'm not good enough to fly vipers."

"Maybe you're not good enough for vipers, but if you really want to fly why not raptors."Raptors were easier because they were slower and most of the pilots that weren't well enough to fly vipers, tried at vipers and mostly succeeded. Lee knew that and he knew that Zak could fly raptors as well.

"Yeah, well. Maybe I should do that. Kara also told me to try raptors. She told me that they are easier and don't need the reflexes you need in a viper."

"Kara?" Lee asked surprised, he had never heard that Zak had a girlfriend.

"Lt. Kara Thrace, she's my instructor." Zak answered. 

_Would she be the girl I saw at flight school, he thought_. He quickly dismissed that thought. The chances that she would be Zak's flight instructor were slim.

"Oh, I thought she was you're girlfriend. The way you said her name. You never used an instructors first name. You always used nicknames." Lee smiled.

"No, she isn't my girlfriend, which is a shame actually, because she's amazing. Hey did I ever told you that she beated all your records in the sim's. She is the amazing Starbuck." Zak smiled

Lee's mouth felt open from astonishment. "No way, you're kidding. Starbuck is a woman." Lee asked with disbelieve. He had always thought that Starbuck was a man.

"I'm deadly serious about it."

"No, no. You're lying." Lee laughed, his head nodding no as well. "Why would the famous Starbuck teach some nuggets, when she could out fly everybody at the fleet."

"Well, apparently she's been transferred to flight school, because she had hit her commander."

"And you tell me all of this almost at the end of the year." Lee frowned.

"Yeah, I wanted to keep this lady to myself, but she wasn't interested. So, you can have your chance now with her." Zak mocked.

"You mean you tried to make a move on her." Lee wondered. Blame Zak for trying to hit on his instructor. It wouldn't be the first time.

"Are you kidding, Lee. I didn't want to end up like her commander. I have thought about it once, but she had made it clear that she wasn't interested."

"Thank the Gods. That could get you in a lot of trouble, Zak. If people would figure out that you date you're teacher that could cost her career and you would be expelled from school." Lee said his face serious. He knew his brother well enough to know that Zak would do such things, never thinking about the consequences.

"I know that Lee, I'm not fourteen anymore." Zak said fierce. "You really sound like dad sometimes. Always thinking about the consequences, playing by the book."He scowled.

"I'm not like him," Lee snapped. he really hated it when people started to compare him to his father. Even if it was Zak who said it.

After Lee's last words there felt a tense silence between the two of them. Both men didn't say a word, afraid that every word that they would bring out would upset the other even more.

Lee heard the TV on the background. He heard and saw that Laura Roslin, a once upon a time teacher, was taking the oath of allegiance to the constitution. She would become the new Secretary of Education, Lee had read.

Lee took a slow draught from his beer and brought his attention back to Zak when he spoke up again. "Listen Zak, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have reacted like that and I think Kara is right, if you really want to fly you should try raptors." Lee apologised.

"I'm sorry to. I know that you hate it to be compared to dad. And I will try raptors."

xxx

"Hey Vaughn. Am I interrupting?. Kara asked waiting at the entrance of his door.

"No, come in. I'm just finished with all my paperwork."Vaughn said, putting the last paper in a map and putting it in a drawer of his desk.

Kara and Vaughn had become close friends. It was at the beginning of the year. Kara wasn't the most enjoyable company that time. She was in a dark place, angry at everything, but most of all herself. She did her job, but after her hours she went to a bar and drank until she couldn't think clearly anymore. One night Vaughn had entered the bar and he saw her sitting at the bar.

_"Do you mind if I join you?" Vaughn had asked taking place at the bar stool beside her. _

_"So, are you here to see how screw-up Kara Thrace drinks herself in oblivion." Kara said dazed from the beers she already had. _

_"Why are you so hard on yourself, Kara?" Vaughn asked._

_"Well, it's true isn't it. I'm here teaching some frakking nuggets, because I hit my commander. Something to add to my list of frak-ups. Gods, even at school and the Academy I was always in trouble. Always on the verge of being thrown out. My mother was right, you know... The only thing I was good at was flying, and that's the only reason they never threw me out."_

_"Ok, listen to me. There is something you need to know. When you first walked into my office after the call of major Fisk, I thought you were crazy, hitting your commander, I mean I actually thought that you might be a crazy person." Vaughn smiled. "But I watched you and I read your file. And I've seen how you work, I've seen how you fly. I've seen who you are."Kara was watching Vaughn intently while he was speaking to her. "In the military you see darkness, you see the worst in people. And I know that the enemies have a thousand names. But the one crucial thing, the one real responsibility you have is to not let your rage and your resentment and your disgust darking you."_

_Kara was looking at Vaughn, not knowing what to say to him. She felt naked. Never in her life had she found someone who could understand how she felt and Vaughn somehow knew, even if he didn't know her that long. _

_"Why are you doing this Vaughn." Kara asked _

_"I know how you feel Kara, I was there once as well. At the same place you are now. And I had the luck that I had my wife at my side to pull me out the darkness. I want to be there for you when you need someone. So when you're on your absolute lowest, when you're most depressed, you know..., you can always call me."_

_"Thank you," Kara said, she wasn't sure why Vaughn said wanted to help her, her mother had always said to her that she didn't deserve a helping hand, that she had to fix her own problems. But somehow this man offered her a helping hand and for the first time Kara didn't have the feeling like it was her against the rest of the world. _

_Kara was watching Vaughn, when a smile appeared on her face. "So, you're married." she grinned._

_"Yeah, I am." Vaughn smiled, "she's the best thing that ever happened to me. We even have two kids."_

_They kept talking until the sun came up and since that day Kara and Vaughn had become close friends and when Kara was feeling down she went to him. And for the first time in her life Kara felt loved._

Kara entered Vaughn's office and settled in the chair in front of his desk.

"So, what brings you here, Kara." Vaughn asked. "Have you seen commander Adama?"

"Yes, I have and that's why I'm here." She said, not really knowing how tob bring up the subject otherwise. " He asked me, if I wanted to serve under his command on the Galactica, you know, I could be a pilot again."

"Really? That's great Kara. So, you're gonna do it?" a big smile was spread over his face, he really was happy for Kara.

"I think I am. As much as I started to love teaching, I miss flying. And this is my chance to be in a viper again in open space, even if it is on an old battlestar such as Galactica."

"You should do it, Kara. And as much as I would love to keep you here as a flight instructor, you don't belong here, you belong in a viper, doing you're crazy Starbuck stunts." Vaughn grimaced.

"Thank you Vaughn, that means a lot to me." Kara smiled.

"But you have to promise me one thing."

"Which is?" Kara asked curious.

"That were gonna celebrate you're promotion."

"That's a deal." Kara laughed.

xxx


	4. When we're through

**When we're through.**

_Life is just a little part of what this world will do  
It's bring us to the brink and beats the shit right outta you  
And decides just when you're in or when you're out  
'Cause when you're through you're through_

_(Pink, When we're through.)_

__It was the last day of the Galactica under Bill Adama's command, today she would be decommissioned and be converted to a museum. It also meant that her commander Adama would go on retirement as well. The crew had complimented him a lot the last few days. Most of them were saying that they were proud to have served under his command and that they would sure miss working under his command. Bill felt the same, it may be an old bucket but he has started to love this Battlestar more than any other Batllestar he ever worked on. It was more because of the people he worked with then the ship himself, but if it wasn't for the Galactica Bill would never have met those people. Most of his crew had found a place on another Battlestar or would go planet side. A few would go on retirement as well. Bill's best friend Saul was one of them.

Bill was walking through the corridors of the Galactica trying to memorize his speech that he would give at the ceremony. It had never been this nervous on the ship before, at least not under his command and it made Bill even more nervous than he already was. "The cylonwar is long over, but let's not forget the reasons..." Bill was murmuring to himself. When he was interrupted by one of his crewman.

"Commander Adama, if I may?" The man saluted.

"Captain?" Adama said briefly glancing up and then continuing to memorize his speech.

"I just wanted to say, what a pleasure it's been serving with you under your command, sir."

"Kelley, it's in my honor, good luck in your next assignment." Bill shook hands with the officer.

"Thank you, sir." Kelly said and then left the commander alone with his speech again.

"The cylonwar is long over..." Bill continued.

Kara was jogging in the corridors of Galactica, it had become one of her daily routines to keep herself in shape. Besides she loved running anyway, it was a way to clear her mind. Today her jog would be the last one on the old lady. So she made it very special. She jogged through every corridor she ever jogged through in the last two years, that she was stationed here. She really loved the Galactica, it was the first place she ever felt home. She had thought that flight school was home, but that changed when she was stationed on the Galactica.

She turned a corner and saw Bill Adama walking, murmuring to himself. She and the old man had grown close to each other over the last two years. Bill had found in Kara the daughter he never had and Kara in her place had found a father she never had. They had talked a lot about her years at the Academy and flight school, but never about her mother. Bill in his place had talked about his sons. Zak was now a fine raptor pilot, Bill had told her. She had seen Zak a few times on the Galactica and they had had some drinks as well then. But Bill's other son, Lee, she had never seen on the Galactica. Bill never talked much about Lee and the things she knew came from Zak. The things that Bill had told her about Lee were always about his childhood. But never about the adult Lee. She knew from Zak that Lee didn't want to speak to his father anymore, but even Zak hadn't said much about that as well.

"Good morning, sir."

"Good morning, Starbuck. What do you hear?"

"Nothing but the rain." Kara smiled, still in a light jog.

"Then grab your gun and bring in the cat."

"Boom, boom, boom." Kara smiled at Bill and then jogged further, finishing her Jog around the Galactica.

Bill once again tried to devote his attention on memorizing his speech, but once again is he interrupted. This time by three of his deckhands muttering something to each other when he approached them.

"What's up." he asked, watching the three of them standing in front of him now.

"Nothing, sir. Just another leak in that frakking window." the three saluted. Bill gave them a look at their word language. "Pardon me, sir." one of them said. "But it's supposed to be a Battlestar, not a museum. Sorry for saying so, sir."

"Couldn't agree with you more. Be careful out of there, right." Bill said and continued to walk further, entering CIC. Once again trying to read his speech all the way through. "The cylonwar may be over., but we cannot forget the reason..."

When he was once again disturbed by one of the officers of CIC, coming to him with some papers in his hands. "Good morning, sir."

"Good morning."

"Account traffic from mid-watch." The young officer said and handed Bill a stack of papers.

"Anything interesting?" Bill asked, knowing that there wouldn't be anything special to report.

"Euhm, mostly housekeeping. Euhm, there was one odd message copied on. One of our Fleet Head Quarters. There, sir." The officer said pointing at the paper that Bill was holding. "The courier officer is over due coming back from the Armistice station. He asked to keep a full status report on our FTL ships. Just in case they need someone to jump out their today, see if his ship has any mechanical problems." The officer said to Bill.

"I think were a bit busy today, wouldn't you say so, lieutenant." Bill said going through the rest of the papers." It would probably be one of those false alarms. And he already had the decommissioning ceremony on his mind.

"Yes, sir." The young officer nodded and smiled.

"Glad we agree."

"And may I take this opportunity to say that it's been both a pleasure and an honor to serve under you this past three years."

"It's my honor, Lt Gaeta."

Bill and Gaeta saluted each other and Bill continued his walk through the Galactica. "The cylon war is not over..."

xxx

Laura was having the worst day she had since the death of her sisters. Today her doctor had told her that she had cancer. She remembered every word the doctor had said to her.

"_I'm afraid the tests are positive the mass is malignant. It's advanced well beyond the left breast. A surgery off course will remove the mass. But it won't cure you. If we would have got to it sooner, maybe we've could have done more." _

On top of that she had had a discussion with president Adar about the teacher strike that was going on for weeks now. The teachers were complaining about the low salaries and the miserable state most of the school buildings were. Laura knew that the teachers made a point, but she could also understand Adar's position. So she had had a meeting with one of the representatives from the teachers and they had thrown it on a agreement. Now she only had to tell Adar about it.

She entered his office and Adar walked directly to her. They were having an affair. Every time she went to him she told herself that she would end whatever it was between them. _For Gods sake he was married_. But every time she saw him she melted. She wasn't able to end things between them, so they both continued the affair.

"I didn't like the way things went this morning." Adar said when he closed the door behind her and then walk to her. He laid his hands around her waist and drew her closer.

"Richard…" Laura resisted

"I know, you've been thinking this is a mistake for a while now." Adar kissed her on the mouth and Laura kissed him back. She let herself been caught in the moment, until responsibility trickled in and she cut herself loose from him.

"I just met with Stans. The Education Alliance is gonna back off." Laura said.

"Back Off?" Adar said staggered. "Laura what did you give them."

"I made them a promise that we would seriously hear out their agree references, Richard. I thought you'd be happy they're going back to work."

"Laura you put me in a very awkward position." He said voice rising.

"I don't see how? Those sides gave ground." Laura said.

"It's not just about your teachers. It's the next strike I'm worried about. You just showed them that if they hold out long enough, this administration will cave."

"You expected me to fail?" Laura said surprised.

"I expected you to hold the line." Adar emphasized. "This doesn't have to be the end of the world. You can stay on advisory capacity. Gods know we need your ideas"

"You asking me to resign?"

"I don't have any choice. This isn't about you and me anymore."

"You're right it's not. You were willing to attack those people and not until a few hours ago I was prepared to let you." Laura said eyes hard. "I am on my way to the Galactica to represent this administration. When I return and you still want my job be prepared to fight."

xxx

After Bill had left CIC, he only had one place left that he needed to be before he could go back to his quarters to clean himself up for the ceremony. He reached the deck, when he saw the chief and his crew.

"Attention on deck" Chief yelled and saluted. The rest of his crew saluted as well.

"Chief, At Ease."

The Chief gestured to Bill to follow him and both men walked to a viper that was covered under a dark blue blanket. When a few deckhands took the blanket of the viper, Bill saw a Mark 2 viper appear from under it. He loved the Mark 2, it was the type of viper he had fought in during the cylon war. "Mark 2 haven't seen one of these in about 20 years." And he walked closer to the plane

"If the commander will take a closer look, of the tail numbering. Nebula 7242 constellation." The chief said proudly, seeing that the commander hadn't noticed that it was the viper he had fought in during the war.

"Oh, My god where did you find her?"Bill's eyes lighted up, when he noticed that it was his viper.

"Rousting out, on a salvage jar on Sagitarrion. We had hope that the commander would allow her to participate in the decommissioning ceremony."

"she'll fly?" Bill said amazed of what the chief had done to his old viper.

"Oh, yes, sir. We've restored the engines, patched the guidance systems, replaced much of the flight control. She's fueled armed. ready for launch, sir."

"Commander," one of the deckhands interrupted, giving Bill something rapped in a brown paper.

" What more? Someone is bucking for promotion here." He joked.

"I believe that would be Prosna, sir?" Chief smiled, watching at the deckhand. "He found this in the Fleet Archives, when he made some research for the museum." When Bill opened it, he saw a picture of him and his two sons standing in front of a viper. Bill still knew the exact day when the picture was taken. It was the first time that both his sons had flew with him. Not in a viper but a raptor.

"Thank you. Thank you all. It's an honor." Bill said moved by what the chief and his deckhands had done for him.

"You're welcome, sir." Chief said proudly.

xxx

Lee was sitting in his viper, waiting to be cleared for launch. He was ordered to attend at the decommissioning ceremony on the Galactica. He really didn't want to go, he hadn't spoken to his father for two years, not after Zak had graduated as a raptor pilot. Lee was still mad at his father that he had pulled some rank to get Zak in flight school. He was somehow glad that Zak had failed to fly a viper, because unlike his dad Lee knew that Zak wasn't cut out for it. Zak had tried to convince Lee to talk to his father again, but Lee had no intention of doing that. Not as long as his father wouldn't admit the mistake he had made. And if Bill was as stubborn as Lee that may never happen.

"so, you're ready for launch, sir." The deckhand asked.

"As ready as I ever will be, I guess."

"It will all be Ok, sir. All you have to do is be there and do the fly by and then you can come home.

"Yeah, I just hope I won't see my dad too much."

"That's something I can't help with, sir." the deckhand rolled the ladder away from Lee's viper and was ready to walk away, when he turned around and addressed Lee again. "You should be glad, sir that you still have a father, I know you don't feel that way now, but don't wait until you can only talk to a stone with only his name on it."

"I'll keep that in mind." Lee muttered, putting his helmet on. He really didn't want to go.

xxx

After Kara had taken a shower, she had gone to the rec room. Helo had asked her if she wanted to join a triad game and Kara couldn't say no to a game with cards. Most people on Galactica hated playing against her, because most of the time she went to her bunk with the cubits. And she certainly couldn't let today pass. It would be the last time that they could play cards before they were all going to be stationed on another Battlestar.

Some people of Galactica had become like family to Kara. Helo had become one of her best friends she ever had in her entire life, besides Vaughn. In a way Helo reminded her of Vaughn. And since she was stationed on the Galactica and couldn't speak to Vaughn that often anymore, Helo was a good replacement. Kara had kept contact with Vaughn though, every week she called him with an update of what had happened on the Galactica and he told her what happened at school. Today he would come to the Galactica as well. She was looking forward to that, it has been almost two years now that she had seen him.

One of the other people Kara liked was Sharon Valerii. She was raptor pilot and was the partner of Helo. Sharon was still a young officer, but she was one of the few woman on Galactica Kara respected. Kara saw Sharon like her younger sister.

"Here we go." Helo said. Placing some cubits in the middle of the table.

"If you gonna play with the big dogs" Kara said, pointing with her index finger at the stash on the table.

"I'm in." Helo said. "That's you XO."

"Haha," Kara laughed," Helo when you gonna learn. First you're flying with rooks and then aw..." Sharon slapped Kara on her arm, "and then you're betting against Starbuck."

"Starbuck, what a great callsign. Starbuck, Starbuck, buck ,buck, buck...,"Saul Thigh mocked. If there was one person on the Galactica Kara hated the most it was colonel Thigh. She and him had been on foot of war from almost the first moment Kara had boarded the ship. Saul had found her insubordinate and disorderly and she had found him a drunk and weak. And the past two years Kara had wanted to hit the man more than once, but so far she had always been able to keep her emotions in check, a lot of credit had to be send to Helo as well for that. "Where did you get that nickname anyway? Was that before you were thrown in the brig as a cadet for drunk and disorderly or after."

"After." Kara answered, taking another drag of her cigar. Trying to stay calm. She was not going to hit him today.

"After, that's right, it was after."

"I'm in, bet's to you XO," Helo said trying to bring the attention from the XO back to the game and not on Kara.

"I'm in." Thigh said, putting some cubits on the table.

"How is the wife?" Kara said staring at Saul. Not hitting him, didn't mean that she would back out of it. She was as strong with words as with fists.

"To early for that kind of money." Sharon said, trying to get the attention of Kara back to the game. Who was still glaring at the commander, waiting for his reaction.

"Hey, did you pick up that pyramid game back on Geminon?" Helo asked, it was another attempt to bring Kara and Thigh back in the game, before they would attack each other.

"What were you doing on Geminon?" Stinger asked, also noticing that the tension between the Saul and Kara was going to a red alert.

"This girl that I know."

"What girl don't you know?" Sharon asked.

The three of them were still trying to change the subject when Thigh answered "The wife is just fine." on Kara's question.

"Talk to her lately?" Kara glared at Saul.

"Bet's to you, Lt." Stinger said.

Kara's attention snapped back to the game. "Erhm, Thirty to me. And it looks like I'm gonna bring this lovely little game to close, because...Full Colors. Haha." Kara smiled a smile that reached the corners of her eyes. She did her winning move with her arms. Until Saul couldn't hold himself together anymore and knocked the table over at Kara. Kara immediately reacted with her instincts and threw a right hook at the XO, hitting him on his left jaw.

"AHW, FRAK." Saul yelled.

Boomer and Helo immediately grabbed Kara before she could do more damage to the XO. Because they both knew that once Starbuck started she couldn't stop.

Kara struggled in Boomers arms and against Helo "No, no Let go of me." She shouted trying to break loose from the grip. She didn't care anymore. She had hold kept herself in line for almost two years, but this time she couldn't let it pass.

She felt that Sharon and Helo were stronger then her and eventually stopped struggling. "Ok, I'm fine, I'm fine.". She said to both of them.

They both loosened their grip on her, thinking that she was calming down, but Kara threw herself in the direction of Saul again, but was once again blocked by Helo's strong arms and Sharon gripping her waist again. The two of them were trying to hold her as far from the XO as possible, while Stinger was doing the same with Saul, who was also struggling against Stinger to break loose.

When Kara and Saul both calmed down a bit Saul straitened himself and said. "You have finally gone too far. And now you're done. Lt. consider yourself under arrest defending charges. Report yourself to the brig."

Kara picked up the cigar, that felt on the ground when she attacked Thigh "Gentleman." She greeted and walked out to the brig.

xxx

Lee was on his way to the Galactica. He had never been on that ship before. Zak had been to the Galactica a few times, he even had asked Lee with him, but Lee refused every time. When he was approaching, he heard the Galactica through his comm's.

"Viper 405, this is Galactica, approach port landing bay. Hands on speed. 105. Check is red. Call the ball."

"Galactica, this is viper 405. Check that, did you say hands on approach?"

Viper 405. That's affirmative hands on approach."

"Copy that Galactica, port landing bay hands on approach. Speed 105 I have the ball." Great, now he even had to do dig up his best landing skills to land. The last time he had to do a landing hands on he could barely remember.

"Skids down. Mad-lock secure." Galactica said.

"On Behave of Galactica I like to welcome you aboard Apollo, It's an honor to have you with us." Major Kelley said.

Lee had arrived at the deck and was now waiting in his viper for one of the deckhands to help him take of his helmet and get him out of his viper.

A ladder was rolled next to his viper and his canopy was opened. Then one of the deckhands clicked the metal ring around his neck loose and helped him with removing his helmet. Lee stepped out of his viper and when he was on the deck he was greeted by a men in his orange overalls and short black hair.

"Morning, sir. Chief Tyrol. I'll be your crew chief while you're aboard." The chief saluted

"Good morning, chief. Captain Lee Adama." Lee saluted as well.

"It's a real pleasure to meet you sir." The chief handed out his hand, but Lee ignored it and walked passed him. "Sure you heard this before I'm a great admirer of your father. Service is gonna miss him when he retires." Chief said, unaware about the strained relation between Lee and his father.

"I'm sure someone will." Lee said coldly. "Is you're auto landing system down. I was hands on for the whole approach."

"It's all hands on, here captain sir" There are no auto landings on the Galactica. Commander Adama's orders." The chief emphasized the last words.

"Is that right." Lee said and walked off. Ignoring the chief at all now.

xxx

"Morning,"

"Morning, sir." The rest of the pilots said in choir.

Lee was sitting in the second last row of the pilots room. He hoped that the briefing wouldn't take too long. The sooner the briefing would be over the sooner he could go back to his viper and wait for the fly by. He wasn't here to make friends anyway. He wished that his brother Zak was here now, but Zak had to pick up a major first and would come in later, probably just before the ceremony would start and by then Lee would be sitting in his viper for the fly by. Lee would have done anything to change places with Zak now, he really didn't want to be on the Galactica, in the neighborhood of his father. The worst part was that everybody on the frakking ship admired his father.

"Alright, today's main event. We have formation demonstration, fly-by maneuvers in conjunction, with the decommissioning ceremony. I got a few changes to the flight plan. Lt. Thrace is being replaced in the slot by Lt. Anders.

At the name Thrace, Lee looked up. He remembered that name somehow, but couldn't quite place it first. Then he remembered, she was Zak's teacher at flight school, she was Starbuck. _Frak, even the famous Starbuck was abourd this old bucket, Lee thought. _How had his father managed that? _Too bad that she wasn't flying at the ceremony, Lee thought. _He would have loved that. He never said it aloud but he really wanted to meet her, to see with his own eyes if she was really that good, like they all said. Well maybe some other time.

"Also we have captain Lee Adama joining us and he's gonna be flying lead during the fly-by so please welcome, captain."

"Good to have you aboard captain Apollo." Some of the pilots said, turning their heads in his direction and greeting him.

Lee greeted them back with a short nod.

"Thanks to chief Tyrol and his deck crew captain you're gonna have the honor to fly the viper you father flew almost forty years ago." Stinger said, watching at Lee to see his reaction.

"Great, that's euhm, quiet an honor." Lee said trying to sound grateful for it, but failing badly.

"Yes it is captain. And personally I can't think of a better way to send this ship into retirement." The Cag said proud.

Xxx

After Laura had spoken to Adar, she had boarded her ship and went to the Galactica for the ceremony. And now she was hear at the Galactica trying to convince the commander to put a computer network on his ship. And it didn't look like her day would become better at all.

"It's an integrated computer network and I will not have it aboard this ship." Bill said to her while they were walking through the corridors of the Galactica.

"I heard you're one of those people, you're actually afraid of computers."

"No, there are many computers aboard this ship but they are not networked."

"A computerized network would simply make it faster and easier for the teachers to teach." She was still trying desperately to convince the stubborn commander of it but apparently without success.

"Let me explain something to you, many men and women have lost their life aboard this ship, because someone wanted a faster computer to make life easier. I'm sorry that I'm an inconvenience to you and the other teachers but I will not allow a network computerized system to be placed on this ship while I'm in command. Is that clear?"

"Yes, sir." Laura said, realizing that it was helpless to convince him.

"Thank you, excuse me."

Xxx

Kara had gone to the brig as ordered and was now sitting at her cot. She had been close hitting the XO a few times before, but could always manage to compose herself, but today was one time to much. It felt good hitting him at that moment. But now that she was here in the brig, she wasn't so sure of that anymore. She had looked forward to participate at the fly by. For her it was something special to fly one last time for Bill Adama. He had given her so much and she wanted to do something in return for him. But now she was stuck here in the brig. She even had heard that his son Lee Adama would participate at the ceremony as well. She would finally be able to meet the great Apollo, the men she had heard so much about, but never saw before.

_way to go Thrace. She muttered to herself._

Gods, the thought that she wouldn't see Vaughn either pissed her of even more. She had missed Vaughn so much. OK, she spoke to him weekly, but it wasn't the same and the thought that he was coming to the ceremony had made her act on her best behavior the last few days. All for frakking it up the last day.

xxx

Lee's day wasn't getting better. He had hoped that he could evade his father until the fly by. But of course the people wanted some pictures from the commander and his son. So Lee was ordered to go to the wardroom. And to make it even worse, Doral the PR executive, wanted the commander to put an arm around his son's shoulder for the picture. Lee saw the hesitation in his father when he putted an arm around his shoulder. Lee himself faked a smile, pretending for the outside world that they were a happy family.

After the job was done Lee was leaving with the rest of the people until his father called out. "Want some, euhm, coffee?" Adama asked.

"No, sir. Thank you, sir." Lee said stoic.

"Why don't you sit down." Bill proposed "Congratulations on making captain. Sorry I wasn't there." Bill actually was on his way to the celebration, but eventually didn't go, because he was afraid of Lee's reaction. So he returned to his ship. Gone to save waters.

"No, Thank you, sir."

"How is your mother doing?"

"Getting married." Lee said briefly, he really didn't want to talk about those things with his dad.

"Good for her, we spoke about a year ago, had a real heart to heart it was good." Bill said, trying to get a conversation with his son.

"I'm glad to hear that, sir. Will that be all?" He wanted to leave.

"Why don't you talk to me Lee?" Bill said, asking the question he wanted to ask from the beginning.

"What do you want me to talk about?"

"About anything."

"Well I don't have anything to say, my orders said, report here and participate in the ceremony. So, Im...I'm here. And I'm gonna participate in the ceremony. There wasn't' anything in my orders about having any heart to heart chats with the old man." Lee emphasized .

"I know you're still mad about what I did for Zak. But I didn't do anything that I would have done for you as well."

"That's no the point, dad! The point is that you wanted Zak to become a viper pilot, you didn't see that he wasn't cut out for it. You only thought about yourself. Thank the Gods that his instructor didn't pass him." Lee yelled

"I did it, because Zak wanted it." Bill said his voice rising.

"Zak wanted to become a pilot, because you expected it. He didn't want to disappoint you." Lee shouted back. "A man isn't a man until he wears the wings of a viper pilot." Lee scowled furiously.

"Zak had a choice. You both did." Bill said

"A man isn't a man until he wears the wings of a viper pilot." Lee scowled furiously. "Doesn't that sound at all familiar to you."

"That's not fair, son." Bill said, staring at the wall in front of him. "I only did it because Zak wanted it."

"You're not even listening to me. Why can't you get this through your head? You only did it because you wanted it. Not Zak." Lee shouted furiously. "Face it, you never gave us a choice." Lee said hard.

"That will be all captain." Bill said still staring at the wall.

Xxx

Doral had just spoken to the public, who were all seated in the starboard landing bay were the ceremony was held. After the public saw the fly by lead by Lee Adama, Bill walked to the front to address the public. He had given up on trying to memorize his speech, so he took his papers with him.

"The cylonwar is long over. Yet we must not forget the reasons why so many sacrificed so much in the cause of freedom. The cost of wearing the uniform can be high, but…" Bill paused for a moment, the thought of his son's in his mind. He felt a pang of sadness when he thought of what he all had missed with his two sons when he was once again on a deep space mission. _Frak the speech he thought._ and continued."Sometimes it's to high. You know when we fought the cylons we did it to save ourselves from extinction. But we never answered the question why. Why are we as a people worth saving? We still commit murder, cause of greed, spite, jealousy. And we still visit all of our sins upon our children. We refuse to take responsibility for the things we've done. Like we did with the cylons. We decide to play God, create life."

Lee was sitting in his viper, when he heard his father speech, he wondered if his father was talking about the mistakes that he had made in his life.

"When that life turned against us we comforted ourselves in the knowledge that it really wasn't our fault, not really. You cannot play God and wash your hands in the things that you've created. Sooner or later the day comes that you cannot hide from the things that you've done anymore." Bill said ending his speech.

Laura Roslin was the first who started clapping after Bill had finished his speech. She never would have thought that a commander who had fought in the cylon war would have such an opinion on life. But she had to admit that he was right. They hadn't learned a thing after the cylon war. They still made the same mistakes and now she could understand why the commander didn't want his Battlestar networked.

"You're one surprising son of al bitch." Saul said, when Bill took place besides him. Bill showed him a small smile, he just realized that he was thinking about his two sons the entire speech and he hoped that Lee would have noticed as well. That Lee would see that it was a sort of sorry to him.

Xxx

After the ceremony Bill was back in his quarters, putting the last stack of papers away, before he would leave the Galactica. Until he heard the phone of his quarter rang.

"CIC to commanding officer."

"Go ahead." Bill muttered.

"I'm sorry to disturb you, sir. But we have a priority 1 alert message from the Fleet Head Quarters. It was transmitted in the clear."

"In the clear? What does it say?"

"Attention all colonial units, cylon attack under way this is no drill." Gaeta said.

"I'll be right there."

xxx


	5. Ave Mary A

_Authors__ Note: In this chapter I'll follow the attacks like they have happened during the series. And I know that I could skip it all, but then I feel like I'm rushing through it and I don't want that either. There will be some small changes, but after this chapter and maybe the next we will go in whole different direction and all bets are off. _

**Ave Mary A**

_If the darkest hour comes before the light  
Where is the light? Where is the light?  
If the darkest hour comes before the light  
Where is the light? Where is the light?  
Where is the light? Yeah_

_(Pink, Ave Mary A)_

_"Action stations, action stations, set condition one throughout the ship. This is not a drill. Repeat action stations, action stations, set condition one throughout the ship. This is not a drill"  
_  
Bill had practically run to CIC to see for himself if what Gaeta told him was right. Once there Gaeta handed him the preliminary reports that they had received. Bill looked through them, only to be confirmed to what Gaeta had just told him over the wireless was right. Saul entered CIC minutes later, buttoning his jacket. When he came standing next to Bill.

"What have we got a shipping accident?" He asked, the last time they had something like that was months ago.

Bill didn't say a word to Saul he just handed him the papers, he couldn't get the words out. If he would say them it would become real and he wasn't ready for that, not yet.

Saul was reading the reports when Gaeta spoke to Bill. "Condition one is set, all decks report ready for action, sir."

"Very well." Bill said, he didn't look up at Gaeta but just stared at the charts before him. He needed to come up with a tactical plan. The last time he had to come up with a plan this fast was during the first cylon war and he wasn't even a commander back then.

"This is a joke, the fleet is playing a joke on you. It's a retirement prank." Saul said to Bill, he couldn't believe a word of it. He was looking at the papers as if the words 'attack' would change if he looked long enough. "Come on."

"I don't think so." For a moment, he had thought it was a joke as well. But Bill knew better, ever since 'that' mission he was sure that the cylons would return one day. He just didn't know when. Now he did. After almost forty years they were back.

Bill took the speaker of the comm's in his hand, he needed to inform his crew of the situation. "This is the commander; moments ago this ship received word of a cylon attack against our home worlds is under way. We do not know the size or the disposition or the strength of the enemy forces. But all indications point to a massive assault against colonial defenses. Admiral Nagala has taken personal command of the fleet aboard the Battlestar Atlantia. Following the complete destruction of Picon Fleet headquarters in the first wave of the attacks. How why doesn't really matter now. What does matter is that as if this moment we are at war. you're trained for this. You're ready for this. Stand to your duties. Trust your fellow ship mates and we'll all get through this. Further updates as we get them. Thank you."

Bill laid the speaker down and just stared in front of him. A small part of him clung on that small trickle of hope that it was a prank after all. But he knew better and he needed to get his crew as ready and prepared as possible, even if they never had been at war.

The only problem was that the Galactica wasn't prepared for war, but for becoming a frakking museum.

"Tactical began a plot of all the units in the solar system, friendly or otherwise. XO we're at a shooting war, we need something to shoot with" Bill said to Saul. Staring to get his people and ship prepared for war.

"I'll check the munitions depots." Saul said, knowing as well that the Galactica didn't have much to shoot aboard.

Bill continued to give orders, they needed to get as much information as possible. If they were at war he would get them through it. "Dee, send a signal to our fighter squadron. I want positions and tactical status immediately."

"yes, sir." The young woman answered.

"And get Kara Thrace out of the brig." If there was one person Bill wanted to have at his side in times of war it was Kara Thrace, if there was someone who could fight a whole squadron of cylons it was her, even if she never had done it. Bill knew that.

Then Bill suddenly realized that both his sons weren't aboard the Galactica. Lee was on his way back to Caprica and Zak, _Gods, Zak. He still hadn't boarded the Galactica and he should have been here with the major during the ceremony._ That made Bill thinking the worst, Zak was probably killed during the first attacks. He just hoped that Lee was still alive. He really didn't want things to end between them like they were now

xxx

Lee was in his viper. Together with the colonial 798 they were flying back to Caprica. Lee was running through some channels, when he heard a message from the fleet headquarters. " To all Colonial Fleet officers, report for duty. We're under massive cylon attack. Repeat…". At first he thought it was joke they were playing on the radio. Letting the people believe that there was a cylon attack. They had made such jokes on the radio a few times already. But when he tried some other colonial channels, they all said the same.

Lee wanted to fly off to the base to report himself for duty, but then he realized that he would leave the Colonial 798 defenseless. He made his choice right then and there to stay and try to defend the Colonial 798 when necessary. "Colonial 798, this is Apollo. I just received word that the Colonies are under attack."

"You're kidding right." The pilot said through the comm's.

"I'm afraid not, I checked all the channels and they all say the same. Massive cylon attack."

"Lords of Kobol, what do we have to do. We don't have weapons aboard." The pilot said, the panic in his voice could be heard from miles away.

"Don't worry too much about that, I'll fly your six. I won't leave you defenseless. The best thing for now is that we wait here until we know more. Captain in the mean time you have to inform the passengers, but don't give them too much information about the attacks. Best thing is that they don't start to panic." Lee said, trying not to panic himself.

"Ok, I'll do that captain."

"I'll try to get more information." Lee said trough the comm's. He hoped that his brother Zak had gotten safely on the Galactica after all. He knew that his brother wasn't there when he had gone to his viper for the fly by. It would make Lee feel a lot better if he was sure that Zak was on the Galactica, because if there was one person that Lee would trust his life with, it was his father.

xxx

Kara had fallen asleep when the alarm sounds went off. She immediately jumped out of the bed that she was sleeping in and ran to her locker to get her flight suit. But she was quickly remembered that she was still in the brig. She went back to sit on her cot and was staring at the wall in front of her, when she heard the hatch go open. Dee stepped through it and murmured some words to the guard, who was sitting on a table. The guard rose from his chair and walked in the direction of Kara's brig and unlocked the door.

Kara saw it all play out in front of her but didn't make a move. She didn't want to make things worse than they already were.

Dee was still standing at the table, when she spoke to Kara. "You have to report to CIC, Lt. Thrace"

Kara stood up, strolled out of the brig with to come standing in front of Dee. "Why? What's wrong?" Kara asked.

Kara saw the tears in Dee's eyes coming up and for a moment she thought that Dee would fall apart, but the small woman pulled herself together and cleared her throat. "All we know is that the cylons attacked our home base."

Kara felt like she couldn't breathe for a moment, like a rock that fell on her chest and she couldn't breathe. Of all the things that she had thought that could happen this was the last one standing on her list. Even meeting the blue-eyed man she only saw twice couldn't top that. _Pull it together Thrace, you're Starbuck_ "Frak me." She said out loud.

Kara followed Dee out of the brig to CIC, when she walked through the doors of CIC she saw Saul giving some orders to an officer. When Saul looked up at her, she noticed the bruise on his cheek that she had given him hours earlier. And she couldn't help herself to push his buttons again. She tapped with her index finger on her face, showing the exact spot where she had hit him hours earlier. She could see the XO biting his teeth, trying to keep himself in line and sje just loved it.

She looked at him one last time, before she came to stand next to commander Adama, who was standing with Gaeta over the Charts. "So that would put our squadron about here" Gaeta pointed out on the charts. "It looks like the main fight is shipping over here in Virgons orbit. But even at top speed they're still over an hour away."

"Plot a course along this access. If we can keep Virgon between us and the battle, we might be able to get pretty close before the cylons are even aware." Bill said to Gaeta, who then went back to work.

"Commander ready for duty." Kara saluted. When she came standing next to Bill.

"Good."

"Were the hell did the cylons come from?" Kara asked boldly.

"All we know for sure is that they achieved complete surprise and we have taken heavy losses. We lost 30 Battlestars in the opening attack." Bill informed her.

_30 Battlestars and there were about ninety of them. _"That's a quarter of the fleet." She realized.

"I need pilots and I need fighters." Bill said to her.

"Pilot's you got. There are twenty of us climbing the walls down there in the ready room. But fighters..." Kara replied. Most of the vipers were out after the ceremony. And those still aboard the ship were damaged or in repairs.

Bill remembered the Mark 2 vipers that were putted there once the Galactica would become a museum. "I Think I seem to remember an entire squadron of fighters down in starboard hangar deck yesterday." Bill said.

"Yes, sir" Kara turned around and left CIC.

While Kara was leaving CIC, Bill took the speaker of the comm's again. "All pilots and deckhands report to the starboard hangar deck to get the vipers out there and prepare them for combat. Repeat all pilots and deckhands report to the starboard hangar deck to get the vipers out there and prepare them for combat."

When Kara arrived at the hangar deck she saw the chief and his crew arrive as well. "You sure they'll fly?" Kara asked the chief, while she knocked over some pole that shielded the vipers from the public. It had been a long time since she flew with a Mark 2 viper.

They weren't as maneuverable as the new ones, but they were built much more solid. The new vipers were made lighter so that they could go faster and make sharper turns. The down side of it was that they weren't that strong. While the older ones could endure some hits.

"Well, the reactor is still hot. So all we have to do is pull the right buffers from the engines, refuel it and you're ready to go. The biggest problem is getting them to the port launch bay." The chief practically shouted through the noise of running and shouting people.

"Why can't we use the starboard launch?" Kara asked.

"It's a gift shop now." The chief answered.

"Frak me."

"Alright lets go, everybody pick a bird we're going to the port launch bay." The chief shouted to the rest of the crew.

xxx

Laura wanted to get more information. One of the passenger had a short range wireless and they were able to pick up some information about what was happening on Caprica and the rest of their home worlds. She knocked on the door of the cockpit, before she entered.

"yes." The Captain answered.

Laura pushed the door of the cockpit open. "Excuse me." She said quietly. "Euhm, one of the passengers has a short wave wireless. They've heard of a report that Caprica has been nuked." She looked to the captain, hoping that he would deny it. But the man didn't say a word, he just stared blankly in front of him. "It has, hasn't it?" She acknowledged.

"Caprica and three other Colonies." He confirmed. He raise from his chair and handed Laura the reports they had received. The man's hand was shaking so badly that Laura lay her hand on his, part to steady his hand a bit, but mostly to give him some comfort. Even when it wouldn't do much.

Laura studied the reports and when she read them, she felt the world close around her. The small hope that it wasn't truth, that they were playing a joke on her, now completely gone. She had now idea what could be worst. Hearing that you have cancer or hearing that the cylons attacked their home world.

The captain then spoke up again. "I guess I a...should make an announcement or something." The man said, having no idea, how he should bring such news.

"I'll do it. I'm a member of the political cabinet. It's my responsibility." Laura said, more because she knew that if the passenger would see their pilot like this, they sure as hell would start to panic. She just hoped that she could do a better job. "While I'm doing that , I would ask that you contact the ministry of Defense, see what we can do to help."

Xxx

Bill hadn't left CIC since the cylons attacked their home worlds. It was like he was taken back forty years ago during the first cylon war. Only he didn't need to command a Battlestar. His squadron under the lead of their CAG Stinger, were all dead. When they saw the cylons on their Dradis approaching their pilots, everybody in CIC was holding their breath and staring at dradis. All knowing what was going to happen and nobody was able to do something, their pilots were left over to the mercy of the cylons. After it had happened Bill had thought that his people would lose hope, would start panicking. But it was the contrary, they all tried harder to get them out their situation.

Bill was now reading the new incoming reports. When he read them he felt his heart sank to the ground. He had no idea how they were all going to cope with more bad news. He took his speaker once again in his hands to address his crew. "This is the commander speaking. Preliminary reports indicate a thermo nuclear device of 50 megaton range was detonated over Caprica City, Thirty minutes ago. Nuclear detonations have been reported on the planets Aerilon, Icon, Sagittarian and Geminon. No reports on casualty's, but they will be high." He said through the comm's "Mourn the dead later. Right now, the best thing we can do is get this ship in to the fight."

Kara and the rest of the pilots, who weren't in the squadron, were all preparing their vipers to be ready for combat. When they heard Bill talk to the Galactica speakers.

"How many people on Caprica city alone." Cally asked.

"Seven million." Kara answered. She didn't look up, she couldn't. She probably had lost her best friend Vaughn, who never made it to the Galactica and from Helo and Sharon they hadn't heard a word as well. She had probably lost two of the most precious people in her life. She was glad that the commander was still here. And for a moment the blue-eyed man pooped up in her mind again. The man she will now never know.

xxx

Laura was informing the rest of the passengers about the situation on their home worlds. And for now everybody stayed relatively calm. She only hoped that, it would stay that way.  
"...Including the colonies Caprica, Picon, Aerilon and Tauron."

"What about Geminon, have you heard anything about Geminon.?" The people started shouting. Well so far for the calmness. People were now shouting and asking for answers through each other.

"Stop, stop, please, I'm trying to reach the government right now for information. In the mean time, we should all be prepared for an extended stay aboard this ship." Laura said, trying to give the people some reassurance.

The passengers calmed down a bit. And Laura knew that she had to give the people something to do, to keep them busy, so that they wouldn't think too much about what happened. Laura knew this from her own experience. After the death of her sisters it was one of the things that helped her through it. She kept herself busy, buried herself in work. So that she couldn't think too much about what happened. She did the same when she heard that she had cancer, she buried herself in work and she would do the same now. "Ok. So, euhm, you please and you." She pointed at two people. "Take an inventory of the emergency supplies and rations."

"Hey, wait a minute, who putted you in charge?" Doral said standing and looking at her.

_Gods are we going that way, Laura thought._ _Why is there always one smartass who thinks he could do it better.  
_

"Well, that's a good question. The answer is no one. But it is a government ship and I'm the senior government official, so that puts me in charge." She was not going to let some idiot like him undermine her authority. "Why don't you help me out and go down in to the cargo area and see about setting up a living space." She then said to Doral, trying to be as nice as she could. The man just looked at her like he had seen a star fall from the sky right on his frakking head.

"Everyone else, please, please. Try and stay calm. Thank you." Laura then said to the rest of the passengers.

Xxx

It was only a matter of time, before the cylons would have found them. And now they had. The first vipers where already launched into combat on their way to kill their first cylons.

Kara sat in her viper ready for launch. The adrenaline kicking high, for her first real cylon encounter. They had to aboard the launch two times before because of a malfunction. So Kara hoped that third time was a charm.

"Interval. Check. Thrusters positive. Stand-by, propulsion is fluctuing. Aboard take off." Kelly said to Kara through her comm's.

"Frak, get me out of here." This was getting ridiculous.

"Let's go. Let's get the bird out. Cally and Prosna take the nose" Chief shouted to his people, he hated it as much as Kara.

The bird was towed out of the launch tube, to get a look once again ."Cally, Prosna. Figure out what's wrong."

"Three frakking aboards chief." Kara shouted, when she had opened her canopy once again.

"We're on it, sir. The pressure faltered again." He knew that every minute counted and that a tempered Starbuck wasn't one you wanted to start a fight with now.

"We should pull it." Cally shouted to the chief. While Kara could hear the pilots who were already in space through the comm's fighting their first cylons. Her nerves rising higher with every frakking second.

"Let's go." Kara shouted, running her hand through her shorts strands of hair out of frustration.

"We should pull the valve and bypass the whole system." Cally shouted.

"We can't pull the valve, the relais will blow." Prosna shouted back.

"Just pull the valve." The chief now shouted to his two deckhands. His nerves getting higher as well.

_"Firing miss, watch it, watch it. Oh, wait Terra has got him, Terra has got him. NO"_

"Stay in formation I can't get him off. Oh, wait I got him. I got him."

Kara was really losing her temper now. She could hear the pilots in combat failing to kill the cylons and all she wanted was to get in space and kill those motherfrakkers herself. "Come on!" Kara shouted, hoping that it would make them work faster.

"Ready." Cally finally shouted back.

"Clear the tube lets go. Get her in. move, move." Chief ordered his deckhands.

When Kara was finally launched it felt like she could breathe again. The adrenaline was still high, but the fact that she could fight instead of wait made her feel a lot better. She saw her first cylon and went straight after it. Her first firings she made missed their target, but it only took a few adjustments in her flying and the raider was easily destroyed. Sge felt some relief wash over her when killing her first real cylon. Although Starbuck would never admit it, Kara wasn't so sure if she could do it. But killing this cylon made her sure she could, she was Starbuck after all, the best pilot in the entire Fleet. "All vipers systems are go, pull it together guys."

She had killed a few more raiders, when she was hit by one of the raiders herself. She looked at the damage of her viper, but quickly noticed that it wasn't bad. "I'm alright." She said through her comm's to inform CIC of it and continued her chase.

"Radiological alarm." Dee shouted throught the comm's. Kara immediately searched the raiders to see one set course to Galactica. She went straight to the raider and was able to destroy it, but was too late to stop it from firing its nukes. She positioned her viper in front of the nukes and was able to destroy two of them before they could hit Galactica. The third one she flying passed her viper heading to Galactica.

Bill was looking at his dradis when he heard Starbuck? "Galactica, Starbuck. You've got incoming."

"Never thought I would say this again, but embrace for impact." Bill said to Saul and then the nuke hit his target. The whole ship felt like it crashed with another ship. The shock that went through it made everyone smash their heads against their desks. Some of the equipment fell over and some of the officers were lying on the ground as well. Even though Bill had said to embrace for impact no one in CIC was prepared for it. Most of them had never felt such an impact like this, so they weren't prepared for it at all.

It took several seconds for the computers and equipment of the Galactica started working again. Bill could hear Starbuck through the comm's giving them the damage report.

"Galactica, Starbuck the port section of the port fly pot has sustained heavy damage. Galactica you've got violence decompressions along the port fly pot. Galactica do you read."

Xxx

Laura was called to the cockpit, after the pilot had been able to contact the ministry of Defense. She now was in the cockpit, listening to one of her colleagues, telling her how bad it was. "Thank got you're not here Laura. I haven't seen anything like it..." The man said through the comm's. Laura could hear the firing and the explosions that were happening down there through the comm's very clear. And it made her feel sick in her stomach. If you could hear it this clear it would be a living hell down there.

"Jack, where is the president?" Laura then tried to ask the man.

"People are wondering in the street." The man continued telling what he saw, not answering Laura.

"Where is the presidnet Jack? Is he alive?" Laura tried again.

"I don't know, I think so. We heard all kinds of things." The helplessness clearly hearable in his voice.

"Have the cylons made any demands, do we know what they want?"

"No, there has been no contact"

"Has anyone discussed... Has anyone discussed the possibility of surrender? Has it been considered?"

"The president has given them a complete surrender, the cylons didn't even respond."

Lee saw suddenly two cylon raiders appear. He immediately informed the pilot of the Colonial 798 about the upcoming treath. "Colonial 798, Apollo. Two raiders just jumped in."

"Colonial 798. Where? What should we do? euhm, copy that." The pilot asked through the comm's.

Laura was still talking to Jack on the other line, when the pilot turned to her. "The cylons have found us there's been an inbound missile."

Lee saw the missile been fired to the colonial 798 and immediately went after the missile. Lee immediately reacted by planting his viper between the missile and the Colonial 798._ "_Frak, great idea to put yourself as diversion, Lee." He muttered to himself. He then realized that his vipers still had weapons and flew out of the range of the Colonial 798 with the missile following him. He had to make sure that if the missile would detonate that the ship wouldn't get damaged. He flipped his viper and then fired, when he was far enough from the Colonial 798. The missile exploded, but a bit to close to his viper, causing his viper systems to go offline. "Crypter, crypter, crypter. This is Apollo to colonial 798. I'm declaring an emergency. My systems are offline. Need assistence." _Stupid thing one explosion and it falls dead. He thought._ If it had been his viper, instead of this old barrack, he wouldn't have such problems. _Thanks dad. We're at war and I'm stuck in this old viper._

Xxx

The chaos in CIC had reached his highest point. They were able to secure the fly pot, but the cost was high. Saul Thigh had given the order to vent the fly pot before the fire, which had started because of the nuke, would reach the fuel lines and ignite the whole ship.

Bill had seen the discussion between the chief and the XO, but he couldn't hear what it was about. And he trusted his XO's judgment in situations like this. When Bill had solved the problem he was on he walked back to his XO, who looked like he just had made the worst decision in his life. Which in fact was true.. "What happened?" Bill asked.

"We had to vent the fly pot, before the fire would reach the fuel lines. Lot of people died." Saul answered.

Bill stared at the charts he was standing above, now he understood why Saul looked like that. The grief over his lost crewmembers overwhelmed him. "What is the final count?"

"26 walked out. 85 didn't." Saul answered and then changed his attention on another topic. He really didn't want to think or talk about his decision. He just wanted to forget it. "There is a munitions depot at Ragnar Anchorage." Saul pointed at the charts in front of them.

"It's a superbitch to anchor a ship there." Bill muttered, knowing very well that Saul didn't want to talk about his last decision.

"Well, book says that there are 50 pallets of warheads in storage there. We should also have the missiles and small arms munitions."

"Go verify that." Bill said to Saul and handed him back the book that Saul had checked for munitions.

"Yes, sir." And Saul walked off.

Xxx

They needed to create more space on the ship for the passengers, especially if they had to stay a little longer on the ship than normal. Laura also knew that they had to create more space for potential survivors.

She was asking and giving some instructions to the pilot in the passengers space. Billy, her personal assistant, was taking notes.

"What if we transfer the containers from bay 3 to bay 4, then we can use 1, 2 and 3 for the passengers." Laura asked the captain.

"Yeah, that's doable, it's a lot of heavy lifting without dock workers." The pilot agreed. Actually he was agreeing with everything that Laura said. He was just glad that she had taken charge.

"Well, some hard work is just what the people need right now."

After Doral, nobody had objected with her taking charge. Most of the passengers were just glad that Laura gave them something to do. So that they couldn't think too much about what was happening on their home worlds.

Lee saw Laura say something to the captain when he walked in. They were able to tow him in with a small vessel that was aboard the colonial. When he had hoisted himself out of his viper, Doral was waiting on the hangar deck. Complaining that there was nobody qualified in charge. Lee had asked if the pilot wasn't in charge and when Doral had said that he wasn't doing anything at all, except taking orders from a school teacher. Lee had gone to find the pilot, to help him with whatever he needed and if necessary he would take charge.

"Captain, good to see you again." Laura said to Lee when she saw him enter.

"Likewise." Lee said to Laura and then turned to the pilot. "Thanks for the lift." Lee said, shaking the pilot's, who raised from the chair, hand.

"You should thank her." The pilot said pointing in the direction of Laura.

"Start the cargotransfer and prep bay 3 for survivors." Laura said to Billy, continuing her previous actions.

"sorry, survivors?" Lee said confused when he heard the word. He hadn't heard anything about rescuing survivors.

"As soon as the attacks began the government ordered a full stop on all civilian vessels. So now we got hundreds of stranded ships in this solar system. Some are lost or damaged, some are losing power. We have enough space on this ship to commandeer 500 hundred people and we're gonna need every bit of it." Laura filled Lee in, seeing that he had no idea about her plans.

"But we don't even know what the tactical situation is out there." Doral interupted, he had followed Lee in.

"The tactical situation is that we are losing, right captain?" Laura said, addressing Lee. The man was really getting her irritated.

"Right." Lee agreed. It seems that somebody already had taken the necessary steps for keeping everything under control.

"So we pick up as many people as we can and try and find a safe Hayden and put down. Captain, I'd like you to look over the navigational charts, for a likely place to hide from the cylons." Laura said and then rose from her seat and walked out of the room.

"Lady is in charge." Lee said to Doral and then left as well.

Xxx

Saul had just walked of when Bill saw his deck chief enter CIC again. The Chief had run off to the port bay after the order of Saul. He had found Cally with Porsna, the deckhand that had checked Starbucks viper during launch, dead in her arms.

The anger could be clearly seen on his face when he walked to Bill and gave the old man a short salute before he said his say.

"Do you know how many we lost." He said in a quiet voice, but with so much venom that Bill was glad that his XO wasn't here right now. Because he was sure that if the chief would have the change, he would put a gun against the man's head and pull the trigger himself. He had never seen his Chief that angry.

"Yes, set up a temporary morgue in the hangar bay." He said back, trying not to be impressed of the anger of the Chief.

"40 seconds, sir. All I need was 40 seconds. 85 of my people." The chief said through gritted teeth and then paused for a moment. Knowing that the next words he's gonna say he better doesn't say, especially not to the commander. "That I told, I told that sonavebitch." He then said angrily.

That was enough for Bill. He knew that the decision that Saul made was a tough one. But he also knew that his XO was right and he wasn't going to doubt that, even if his Chief didn't agree with him.

"He's the XO on this ship. Don't you dare forget that. He made a tough decision. Had it been me I would have done exactly the same"

"40 seconds, sir." The chief crackled.

"Resume you're post chief." Bill said. He didn't want to talk about it anymore. He stands behind the decision of his XO.

The chief snapped a short salute and then walked off to the hangar deck, the anger still visible. But Bill didn't care, not now. This was war, not kindergarten and in war you have to make decisions people don't always agree with. On his way out the chief crossed Saul and gave the man one last threatening look before he left CIC.

Saul ignored the look the chief gave him and walked further to Bill. "Munitions depot confirmed, but we have two problems, one the Ragnar station is at least three days away at best speed and the whole cylon fleet is between here and there"

"Specialist, bring me our position." Bill said to Gaeta, already forming a plan to avoid the cylons.

Saul could read Bill's mind. "You don't want to do this." He said to Bill, knowing what the old man was planning.

"You know I don't." Bill replied

"Because any sane man wouldn't. It's been what 20? 22 years." Saul continued, giving Bill his thoughts.

That's what made them so good together, Bill always thought. If Bill had some plan and presented it to Saul, Saul always objected. Giving him reasons why he should or shouldn't do it. Always objecting his decisions, because Saul knew that Bill would try everything to prove he was right. That he could do it.

"We're trained for this." Bill said.

"Training is one thing but if we're off in our calculations with even a few degrees, we could end up in the middle of the sun."

"No choice." Bill said stubborn. "Colonel can you please plot an FTL jump from here to Ragnar"

"Yes sir." Saul replied, knowing that as always, Bill would proceed with his actions.

Xxx

"This is an official colonial government broadcast. All ministers and officials should now vote case orange. Repaet…"

They were back in the cockpit of the colonial one. Laura had tried to reach her contact Jack again, to get an update on the situation down there. But when she heard this message she knew all she needed to know.

"It's an automated message. It's been designed to send out in case the president, the vice-president and all most of the cabinet are dead or icompasitated. I need you to send my ID cpde on the exact same frequency." She said to the pilot.

"Yes madam."

"D as in dog, dash, 4,5,6, dash, 3,4,5, dash, A as in apple. Thank you."

She couldn't wait in the cockpit on the result to know who of the administration survived the attacks, She needed to get some space and air and walked out of the cockpit. She settled herself in a seat wit ha blanket over top of her. All those people she worked with were dead. Adar the man she claimed to love dead. Her thoughts went to their last conversation.

_"You asking me to resign?"_

_"I don't have any choice. This isn't about you and me anymore."_

_"You're right it's not. You were willing to attack those people and not until a few hours ago I was prepared to let you. I am on my way to the Galactica to represent this administration. When I return and you still want my job be prepared to fight."_

She didn't wanted things to end like this between them. She had hoped that when she was back from Galactica and they both had some time to think about it, that they could talk it out.

She didn't see Lee coming towards her until he settled himself down in the seat in front of her.

"How far down?" Lee then asked her.

"43 in line. I know all 42 ahead of me from the president down. Most of them served with him on his first administration. Some of them came with him from the mayors office. I was there with his first campaign." Laura said, remembering all the hard work they had put in it to win votes and how she and Adar developed from a friends to lovers. "I never really liked politics. I kept telling to myself I was getting out, he had this way about him. I just couldn't say no." She said with a small smile on her face.

The captain of the colonial 798 walked out of his cockpit to Laura and handed her the report of the survivors of the administration. The look on his face didn't tell anything good.

Laura took the paper in her hand. Her heart was thumbing in her throat, she just hoped that some people had survived, but when she looked at it, she saw all the names in front of her name never gave their ID codes. "Thank you. We need a priest."

They had found a priest. Laura never ever in her life thought that she would take the oath for president. She never even wanted to become a president. And as much as Laura just wanted to hide, to crawl under her blanket, she knew that this wasn't an option. She knew that the people needed someone who would guide them in times like this. And if it had to be her, she would do it. She would take her responsibility.

There were some other people around her, who could witness her, taking the oath

"Please raise your right hand and repeat after me. I, Laura Roslin." The priest then started.

"I, Laura Roslin." She began, her voice shaking violently, tears started to well in her eyes as well.

"Do now vow and affirm."Elosha, the priest, continued.

"Do now vow and affirm."

"That I take the office of the president of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol."

"That I accept the office of the…" Laura paused for a moment, she was on the verge of crying and she didn't want something like that to happen. So Laura pulled herself together and tried again. "That I accept the office of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol." This time her voice was steadier and stronger.

"And that I will protect and defend the sovereignty of the Colonies with every fiber of my being."

"And that I will protect and defend the sovereignty of the Colonies with every fiber of my being." With the last three words her voice was thrilled again. All those people would count on her now and she had no idea how she, a school teacher once, would be able to do that.

Xxx

They were plotting the jump coordinates for the jump to Ragnar. Bill was standing over the charts again. He just hoped that they wouldn't be too late to help the others with the attacks against the cylons.

Bill saw Dee in the corner of his eye walk towards him and when the young petite woman came standing next to him, he saw the tears in her eyes."Priority message, sir" Dee said to Bill, handing him a paper. Trying to be brave.

Bill took the papers out of Dee's hand, with some reluctance. He read through the paper and felt his hope slink with every word that he read. "Admiral Nagala is dead," He said aloud to the rest of the CIC. "Battlestar Atlantia is been destroyed, so is the Triton, solaria, Colombia... List goes on"

"Who is the senior officer, who's in command." Saul asked.

Bill never would have thought that he was going to say these words in his life ever again. As commander he had the highest rank of the fleet now. He turned to Dee and said. "Send a message to all colonial vessels. Priority channel one. Message begins; I'm taking command of the fleet."

Dee wrote the message down and then walked off to transmit the message to the rest of the existing ships. If they were any left of it.

"You heard anything from Lee or Zak." Saul suddenly asked.

Bill suddenly realized that he hadn't thought of his sons since the beginnings of the attacks. The truth was that Bill didn't allow himself to think about them, the chance that they both would be alive was really small. And Bill wasn't ready to accept that they were both dead. "No, nothing." Bill replied.

"They are Adama's. They will get through this." Saul said trying to give Bill some hope, even if he knew that the chances that they were both alive were very small.

_attention all decks jump prep on the way, set condition 2 throughout the ship. _

_Xxx_

After Laura was sworn in as president they continued their mission to find as many survivors as possible. So far they had found a few other ships without running into cylons and Lee hoped that it would stay that way, he was searching for a save place for the ships to hide in case the cyylons would attack when he received another report. "To all Colonial units. I'm taking command of the fleet. All units order to rendez- vous at Ragnar Anchorage for regroup and counter attack. Acknowledge by saying encryption protocol. Adama."

When Lee read the message he felt some relief trickling in. His father was still alive and even if they weren't on good terms now, the thought that his father was alive and that he had a plan made Lee feel safer. With the Galactica still alive, the civilian ships had some protection, because Lee new that even if they saved as much survivors as possible they wouldn't lest long if they didn't have weapons.

Lee walked out of the cockpit to find Laura and tell her the news he had just received.

"Captain, you found something." Laura asked, sitting on the sofa with a stack of papers in front of her as well.

"I just received a message from the Galactica. They have taking command and are currently at Ragnar anchorsiche. They send out this message to all colonial military vessels to report over their. I sujest we do the same once we're done with our rescue mission. If we keep close to the Galactica we have some protection, because madame president we can safe as much people as we want, but as long as we can't defend ourselves against the cylons we won't stand in a chance"

Laura was listening to Lee intently and she knew that he was right, the though thad occurred to her as well. "That's a great idea, Captain Apollo. As soon as we're done here, we'll jump to Ragnar."

"Euhm, Madame President, Apollo is just my call sign. My name is Lee Adama."

"I know, but Captain Apollo has such a nice ring to it. Don't you think?" Laura grinned at Lee.

"Captain, I think we found some friends of you." The pilot, who had walked in the room, said grinning. "We just had contact with a raptor from the Galactica, they have some civilians from Caprica and they are now boarding the ship."

_Xxx_

Kara had landed her viper safely after they had destroyed the cylon raiders. The adrenilane that had ran through her veins when she was shooting cylons was now replaced by grieve. She may have survived it, but some of them didn't make it. She had seen some vipers explode, while she was killing cylons herself.

"Lt, what did you do to my viper?" The chief asked when he walked up to her, while she stepped of the ladder that was rolled next to her viper.

Kara looked up at the damage that her viper had received."No wonder why the engine gave out." She said in Starbuck tone.

"We're gonna have to pull the whole tale, get the high lift."He said to one of the deckhands and then continued to speak to Kara. "How did you manage to fly this thing, best enough land it."

"That's not something I want to think about right now." Kara said, while she was looking at the destroyed tail of her plane. "Were is Prosna he's gotta get that frakking gimball out or I'll have his ass."

The chief looked up at her, his anger rising up again, when he suddenly realized that she had no idea of what had happened to most of his crew. "He's dead, sir. He died in the fire."

Kara immediately regretted what she just had said, when she saw the look on the chiefs face.

"How many did we lose?"

"85." The chief said, but he didn't look at her.

"Right." Kara muttered and then walked off.

Xxx

It was Boomer, who had landed the raptor on the Colonial one. She had brought some civilians from Caprica with her. Boomer had told Lee that the squadron of Galactica was shot out of the sky. They weren't able to kill one cylon. Sharon had told Lee that it looked like someone just turned off a switch. The only vipers that worked were either old or needed repairs. She and Helo were able to escape from the cylons but their Raptor had taken some damage so they had to land on Caprica to repair the damage. And there they had picked up the civilians, who were now aboard of colonial one.

One of them was Dr. Baltar. He had taken the place from Helo, who gave up his seat for Baltar, because he believed that Baltar could help them. Lee had heard a lot of the man. He was a celebrity on Caprica and he was the one who invented the newest military software. Laura knew the man as well and wanted to speak to him. So now all of them gathered in the passengers space of the ship.

"Hello, Dr. Baltar. It's a pleasure to meet you, we met last year Caprica City Symposium." Laura said, shaking the hand of Baltar.

"Off course. Euhm. You have to forgive me I'm bad with faces." The man said ashamed. He didn't look well either. He had a long cut on his left cheek and his clothes were dirty from the sand that stuck on it.

"Oh no. It's perfectly alright. I'm sure I wouldn't remember me either. Doctor I need you as my chief scientific consulter and analyst regarding the cylons and their technology." Laura said. If this man invented most of the technology they now worked with. Then she could surely need his knowledge.

"I'd be honored. Madame President." Baltar said humble.

Laura addressed her attention on Boomer. "Lt. Valerii…right? Is it Valerii?"

"Yes" The black haired small woman said.

"I understand that your ship has a limited FTL- ability?"

"Euh, Yes, sir. The Raptor was designed to make short jumps ahead of the Fleet, to scout for enemy ships and jump back to the port."

"I want you to go out there and find as many survivers as you can, bring them back to this position. We will then form a convoy, we will guide them out of the combat zone and in to safety." With a Raptor they could easily find other ships without endangering the ships they already had found.

"Yes, sir." Boomer said and left.

xxx

"Board is green. Ship report ready to jump, sir" Saul said to Bill.

"Take us to Ragnar, colonel." Bill said.

Gaeta took the speaker and started the countdown"All pilots prepare for jump . Clock is running. 10, 9, 8, 7 ... Jumping"

The world closed around them, and they jumped.

Xxx

They had found almost over 60 ships that were stranded. Laura was happy with the result. They had been searching for an hour now and she hoped that they could soon leave, because she knew that the cylons would find them eventually and she would rather avoid that if possible.

"Colonial One, Boomer. There are no ships left anymore. But we find another raptor" Boomer said through the comm's.

Lee could hear her grinning when she said it. And then he heard an all too familiar voice. "Colonial One, Buster. I have to say I'm glad that we ran into you."

"Zak?" Lee said surprised.

"Yeah, Lee. It's me. Seems like you're giving a party without me." Zak grinned.

"I thought you would be on the Galactica by now." Lee said, still surprised to find his brother here as well.

"Well, it looks like we ran in some interference." Lee felt relief wash over him when he knew for sure that his brother was still alive and well.

Lee wanted to ask Zak something else, when the pilot of the colonial one interrupted him. "Captain, two cylon raiders just jumped in."

"Frak, spin our FTL drives and tell the rest of the ships that they have to jump to Ragnar as well. They all have the coordinates." Lee said to the pilot, trying not to show too much of his worries.

"Copy that." The pilot said.

Lee then brought his attention back to his brother. "Zak, you have to jump to Ragnar two raiders just jumped in. I'll transmit the coordinates."

"copy that, Lee." Zak said through the comm's

"Euhm, sir. One of the ships FTL is not ready yet. They can't make the jump in time." The pilot said to Lee.

"Frak" Lee then heard Zak's voice crack through the comm's again.

"Lee, you and the other ships jump. Me and major Vaughn try to hold off the cylons from destroying the ship. We have to missiles aboard."

"Zak, don't. You won't survive it. You can't hold off the cylons with only two missiles." Lee said, his voice sharp with worry and fear. He didn't want to loose his brother. Not now. They had just find each other.

"Lee, I'll be right behind, just jump." Zak said and Lee could hear the determination in his brothers voice. He was going to do anything to save the people aboard that ship. And Lee knew that Zak could be as stubborn and determined to something when he wanted to be. It was something all the Adama's had.

"Ok, Zak. But as soon as the ship has jumped you jump as well. No heroics."

"No, heroics." Zak confirmed.

"Good luck and Zak, I love you." Lee said, he just hoped that they wouldn't be the last words that he would be saying to his brother.

"Right back at you." Zak replied.

And then the pilot of colonial one started counting down and they jumped.

Xxx

Galactica had made the jump and when everything went online Bill immediately wanted to know the status report. He was glad that they were still alive. That eliminated the fact that they hadn't jumped inside of the sun. "Report." He asked.

Gaeta immidiatly turned to the dradis screen. "Taking a bearing now," The man looked at the screens and then turned with a smile on his face. "We appear to be in de in GS synchronous orbit directly above the Ragnar Anchorage." The man said proudly.

They all applauded and congratulated each other, the relief that they made it safely, making them smile. It gave them some hope. Maybe they could get through this.

"Colonel thigh let's update the charts for a course. " Bill said to Saul. They may have reached Ragnar, they still weren't I n safe waters. It was going to be a difficult job to get through the electrical storm, to reach the munitions station.

Xxx

Once the jump was complete, Lee saw that they all had reached Ragnar. He immediately looked at the dradis and saw that all the ships were accounted for except two. Zak's raptor and the ship that he protected. Lee felt his his heart thumbing in his throat. He kept looking at the dradis and then saw a blip appear. It was the civilian ship. Lee waited several seconds longer for another blip and with every secons passing by, he felt his worst fear come up.

He didn't hear the pilot say something, until the man had said his name four times. "Sir, the ship says that the raptor didn't make it. They were hit by a cylon raider."

Lee wanted to scream, tears welled. The world around was closing in. He had to ran out of the cockpit to get some air. His brother was dead. They were so close to safety and his brother was dead. He sacrificed himself to save others. It was something Lee never would have thought of Zak when he entered military school. The young careless man had saved thousands of people by giving his life.

The only hope Lee had now was that his father was still alive at the Galactica.

Xxx

They had docked to the munitions depot safely and were now loading the weapons in the Galactica. Bill had gone togheter with his deckchief and had given command in CIC to Saul.

Everything was calm until the speakers sounded through the speakers.

_Action stations, action stations. Set condition one throughout the ship._

"multiple contacts coming down through the storm towards the anchorage. Looks like more than fifty ships." Dee said.

"Launch the alert fighters." Saul ordered. The hope of getting a break from the cylons, taken away.

"Wait I'm getting colonial signals." Dee then said.

"Confirm that!" He wasn't going to take any chances.

"Confirmed, sir incoming ships are friendly."

"Action stations stand down." Saul said reliefed that it weren't the cylons. Especially now that Bill wasn't in CIC.

Saul was going to wlak to the comm's to inform Bill about the new contacts when Dee said something else. "The lead ship is requesting permission to come a long side, sir. They say they have the President of the Colonies aboard." She said a bit surprised.

Saul was as surprised as her when he heard that the president was still alive. "Grant the request." He ordered.

Xxx


	6. Long Way To Happy

**Long Way To Happy.**

_It's gonna take a long time to love  
It's gonna take a lot to hold on  
It's gonna be a long way to happy, yeah  
Left in the pieces that you broke me into  
Torn apart but now I've got to  
Keep on rolling like a stone  
Cause it's gonna be a long long way_

_(Pink, Long way to happy)_

Bill had gone to the hangar deck after Saul had contacted him through the comm's. Saul hadn't told him much only that the President of the Colonies was aboard. He had found it strange that the President was still alive. The last he had heard from the President was that he was planet side during the attacks. So the most likely scenario would have been that he had died. But maybe the president had found away to escape the attacks after all. Well, he was gonna find it out pretty soon.

Bill and the chief were both waiting for the raptor to enter the hangar deck. And when it finally entered the Chief immediately recognized the Raptor as the one from Boomer. "It's Boomers raptor, sir." The chief grinned, realising that Boomer wasn't death made his heart jump. He could see her sitting through the window of the raptor.

Bill had stayed silent the moment the raptor entered the hanger deck and he had a good view of who was sitting next to Boomer. He couldn't believe his eyes. He literally had to pinch himself to see if he wasn't dreaming. It was Lee, he was alive. Bill felt the tears in his eyes well up, when he saw his son sitting in that Raptor alive and breathing.

Lee saw his father standing on the hangar deck, when they entered the hanger deck, and for the first time in two years he was glad that to see his father standing there. After all he had been through it was happy to see someone familiar.

Bill saw Lee walk out the raptor and immediately walked over and took him in a tight embrace. Lee had no idea what happened when his father embraced him so intense. He was so overwhelmed by his father's reaction that he didn't react, but just stood there. Finally he responded by putting his arms around his father as well.

It was the first time since the attacks that Bill allowed himself to cry. He hadn't cried when the cylons attacked, hadn't cried when he lost a whole squadron or his deckhands, hell even not when he had thought that both his sons would be death. It was close though, but still. And now, in this moment when he was holding his son, he cried.

They loosened their grip on each other. Both men were now facing each other and Bill could see the tears in his son's eyes as well.

"I'm sorry, dad." Lee said, trying to apolgize for Zak. "I couldn't save him."

"What do you mean, you couldn't save him?" Bill asked confused for what Lee was apologizing for.

"Zak. He was with us before we jumped to Ragnar." Lee said, he felt the tears in his eyes well up again, with the thought of his brother.

"What do you mean, he was with you?" Bill asked, still not really understanding what Lee tried to tell him. He thought that Zak was still planet side. That he had died during the first wave of attacks.

"Boomer had found Zak's raptor, while we were searching for stranded ships." Lee started, his voice still shaking. "The moment we wanted to jump to Ragnar a few cylon raiders had found us. All the ships were prepared to jump, but there was one ship that had some troubles with the FTL." Lee had to pause a moment before he could continue. "Zak," His voice cracked when he said his name. "Zak stayed behind to defend the ship until it could make the jump. The ship jumped, Zak's raptor never did. He died." Lee said and he felt the tears streaming down his face. He couldn't stop them and he wasn't going to try either.

Bill was crying as too, he felt so many emotions at the same time. On the one hand he was happy that Lee was still alive and on the other hand he was distressed for the loss of his youngest son. He wanted to comfort Lee, but had no idea how to do that either. It had always been difficult for Bill to talk to Lee, and after the last two years Bill really didn't know where to start. "Lee, I'm sorry you had to go through that. But sometimes we don't have a choice." Bill said, instantly realising by the harsh look on Lee's face that this was the wrong thing to say.

"There is always a choice, dad." Lee said through gritted teeth. He wasn't forgotten how their father always pushed them. How could he say something like that?

"I'm sorry, if I ever gave you the impression that you had no choice except the military. I know I was wrong pushing you both in the military."Bill apologized. He knew that if he ever wanted to fix his relation with his son that this would be the moment. Bill realised that he had given a second chance.

Lee was taking off guard with the apology of his father. Of all the things he had thought his father would say back this was the last he expected. The anger he felt all those years towards his father melted away. He looked at his father and all he could see was a father who grieved for the death of a son. Not the commander. "I'm sorry too. So what do we do now?"

"We don't give up. We keep fighting until we can't. And for starters I need a new CAG. Stinger died during the attacks and you're now the highest ranked officer. After we have loaded Galactica with munitions, I need you to do a recon mission before we all fly out of Ragnar. I want to know what the situation is out there, make sure that the cylons don't kill us before we even shot our first bullet."

"Ok, I'll start on planning the mission." Lee said and he almost turned around to go plot the mission until his father spoke up again.

"Lee, ask Lt. Thrace to fly you're wing. I don't want to lose you as well and she's our best pilot. Ask one of the deckhands were she could be, they probably know." Bill said a small smile on his face. Even with the end of the worlds some things never change.

Lee looked a bit surprised, when his father said the latter. "If she's your best pilot, why don't you put her in as CAG? She knows the pilots better." Lee asked. Not that he didn't want to be the CAG. It would just be easier if you assigned a pilot, who knew the others, to do the job.

"You'll find that out soon enough." Bill smiled.

Lee just nodded and then turned on his heels in search of a certain Lt. Thrace.

Xxx

Laura walked out of the raptor and while she had seen the Battlestar only this morning, a lot had changed. The peace and rest that was the Galactica only this morning were replaced by shouting voices and people running over the deck with viper parts. The vipers she had seen standing so neatly next to each other without a scratch, looked like they were just taking from a dumpster. It gave her an idea of how bad the situation was out there.

She saw the commander embrace his son and could see the tears in his eyes. He was one of the lucky ones. He will be one of the few people that still will have family after the attacks. For some reason she was glad her sisters had died a few years ago, so that they didn't have to run from the cylons, trying to escape. They wouldn't witness all the cruel things that are happening now.

She saw Lee leave his father to gods now where and walked up to Bill. "Commander Adama." She greeted.

"Secretary Roslin." Bill nodded, still having no idea that she was the president now.

"It's president Roslin now. President Adar died during the attacks. All the rest of the ministers died as well, I'm the only one left. I was sworn in a few hours ago as President." Laura filled Adama in.

"I see." Bill muttered. Was she kidding, a teacher becoming President.

"Is there some place we can talk? But first I need you're help with some civilians, some of them are hurt and need medical care."

"I'll send two disaster pots to the ships to treat them, those who are seriously injured can be brought to doc. Cottle. He is our doctor aboard the Galactica.

"Thank you."

Xxx

Lee was watching the hangar deck in search of Lt. Thrace. He hadn't foud her yet, but then again he was just started.

When his father said the name Thrace it sounded so familiar but he couldn't quite place it. He was sure he had heard the name a few times before. But he couldn't recall when or where.

Lee wandered through the vipers, you could see the marks of a battle on the metal of the vipers. Some of the vipers even looked worse, like they've gone to hell and back. In a matter of fact they did. Lee approached the first deck crew he saw. "Excuse me. Do you know where I can find Lt. Thrace?"

The young woman smiled at him. "Starbuck. Right there under her viper." She pointed in the direction of a viper standing a bit away from the others.

Lee could see a person lying under it and then it hit him. Lt. Thrace was Starbuck, the famous viper jock at flight school, the one who beated all his records. Frak she even was Zak's teacher.

Lee thanked the deckhand and walked of in the direction of Kara's viper. He had no idea how he would address her, so he would go with the simplest thing. "Hey."

Kara was fixing her fuel line, it had suffered some damage, when she heard an unfamiliar voice bringing her out of her thoughts. She looked from under her viper, but was only able to see the slacks of a flight suit. For a better view she had to roll from under her viper.

When she came from under her viper and looked up, her heart stopped a beat. The man, she thought she never would see again in her entire life was standing right in front of her. The blue eyes, the ones she never forgot, were staring at her intently.

Lee handed Kara a hand to help her standing up and when she did just that, he felt his breath catch. He saw the one person, he only allowed himslef to dream about, standing in front of him. Of all the good things that could happen now, this was the last on his list.

They both stared at each other like they had seen a ghost. Blue eyes meeting Hazel brown eyes. Apollo meeting Starbuck. Lee Adama meeting Kara Thrace.

They kept staring at each other, both their hands linked in each other. Their skins burning with each others touch. "I thought you were dead." Kara said, not realizing she said it out loud until he responded.

"Well, I thought you were in hack." Lee said, smiling at the odd question she just said.

He saw her smile back at him and it was the most beautiful and most sincere smile he had ever seen in his life. It was a smile that could light up the sky, one that could make the worst day in your life better in an instant.

Kara suddenly realized that they still had their hands in each other and she let go of his hand and placed her hands on her side. The cold she felt when she let her hand go, made her want to take back his hand in hers and let her feel the warmth of his hand a bit longer in hers. "It's good to be wrong."

They kept staring for another minute to each other until Lee realized that he hadn't given her his name. "I'm sorry. I'm Lee Adama."

"You're Zak's brother." She realised. "You're the old man's older son."

"Yes, I am." Lee confirmed and smiled at her realasation. He looked to her a second longer, until he realised he was staring at her again and all Kara could do was stare back as if they both needed to be sure that the person really was standing in front of them. Eventually Lee took his eyes away from her to look at her viper."So, how go the repairs?" He asked, cursing himslef for the stupid question. That was not what he wanted to ask her.

"On track another hour and she'll be ready to launch." She said, taking her eyes of him now and looking at her viper herself.

"Good, because I need you as my wingman. We need to scout for cylons to see if we can safely jump away before the cylons can blow us away."

"Good, so I guess you're the new CAG now?" Kara said a smile appearing on her face once again.

"Yeah, that's what they tell me." Lee answered.

"Good, that's the last thing I want. Not enough dipstick for the job." Kara grinned, looking him directly in the eye again.

Lee looked at her surprised and was greeted again with one of her great smiles. He wanted to kiss her in that moment. He still couldn't believe that he had finally found her. That he was finally talking to her and hopefully he could get a drink with her after all this was over. Maybe they could get a drink together with Zak and then he suddenly realized that this would never happen. Zak was death, they were in the middle of a war and here he was thinking about kissing and frakking this woman. He needed to go, before he would lose it. "I'll be in the squadron ready room." He said. "I'll see you in an hour."

"Ok, I'll be ready." Kara said.

Xxx

Laura and Bill had gone to Galactica's wardroom to talk further. Bill had no idea what to expect from her. But if she was going to be as persistent as she was this morning then it wouldn't be an easy talk. "Do you want something to drink?" He asked. Better to start nicely.

"That would be nice, thank you." Laura replied. She wasn't looking forward to it either. Maybe a drink would take some of the tension away.

Bill poured her a glass and poured himself one as well. He settled him in the seat across from Laura.

"What are your plans, commander?" Laura said fiercly.

"My premilinary objective is to repair the Galactica and bring her back in the fight."

"Are you kidding, commander. In case you haven't noticed we have over 50 000 refugees who need protection. Galactica is the only ship that can give them that."

"In case you haven't noticed, but we're at war. What we need to do is repair the Galactica and go back in the fight." Bill said stoic, he wasn't going to back down out the fight. They were a military ship, they were trained to fight.

"Why I'm I the one, who keeps saying it. The war is over we lost."

"Not as long as I'm still around."

"What we need to do, commander is to run, jump out of this solar system and never come back." Laura continued, she wasn't going to back down for him. If he could be stubborn so could she. "Listen commander. If there would be a chance that you could defeat the cylons I would say try it. But you know as well that one battlestar against those cylons doesn't stand a chance. And if we want humanity to survive we need to run."

Bill knew she was probably right. If they would attack the cylons they would most likely not survive it. And maybe they would stand a chance at surviving if they run. "Alright." Bill murmured. "I'll have asked Captain Apollo to fly a recon mission, see what's outside the electrical storm. If we know more then we can plan our next move."

"I think that would be wise, commander." A faint smile appeared on her face, it was one of relief and gratitude. She had thought that it would be harder to convine him to not engage into the fight. After all he was a commander. He was a fighter, not someone who would run away from the attack. But apparntly he also knew that they were on the losing end.

Xxx

It was rare, but Kara was waiting at her viper for Lee. Normally she was the one they had to wait for, not this time. Part of it was because she already was on the hangar deck, fixing the fuel lines. The other part was, well let's say she couldn't let the CAG wait on his first mission.

She saw Lee walking in her direction, his helmet thucked under his arm. A smile appeared on his face when he saw her standing next to her viper. And it made Kara feel warm inside. _Focus Thrace. _

"Ready for the mission, Starbuck." Lee greeted her, a grin on his face.

"As ready as I ever will be, sir." Kara replied in her best behavior.

"Good, you understand the mission?"

"Yup, Put our heads out in the storm, look around, listen for wireless traffic and then we come home." Kara replied with a grin.

"No heroics, this is strictly recon, look, listen and return." Lee said, making sure that she doesn't pull one of her crazy stunts that he had heard off.

"You don't have to worry about me, my taste of heroics died after I engaged that first cylon."

"Good then of we go." Lee smiled back at her.

Xxx

For now everything went well during their recon. They were almost through the storm and they hadn't seen one frakking cylon, maybe they could keep it that way, Lee hoped. He had to admit that Starbuck was the best pilot he had ever flown with. Every move he made she anticipated easily, like she knew the move he was gonna make before he even made them.

"Apollo, Galactica, you should be approaching turn eight." Dee said through the comm's.

"Copy that. Starting to lose wireless contact. Making the final turn now. Galactica, Apollo we've reached the trash hole. Galactica do you read me? Galactica do you read me?"

"Guess we're on our own now Apollo." Kara said through the comm's

"Guess so." Lee responded

They both approached the end of the storm, Kara was looking at her dradis when it showed the capacity of the cylons that were waiting for them outside the storm "That can be right, do you see that on you're Dradis, Apollo?"

"Yeah, I see it."

Kara looked up and swallowed hard when she saw the basestars and the cylon raiders. She had kind of thought that there would be cylons out there, but not this amount. This was insane. "Oh frak. I think we better turn around. Guess we're a bit outnumberd to fight them on our own." She said through the comm's.

"Couldn't have said it any better." Lee replied.

They quickly flipped their vipers in the direction of the storm again and hit the throttle hard, hoping thath the cylons hadn't seen them, because then they surely never would make it back.

Xxx

Bill had gone to CIC with Laura in his tracks. If she was going to be President of the colonies, their leader, she needed to be part of this. If their lifes would depend on those people she wanted to know how they worked. She could hear Captain Apollo speaking through the comm's when she entered CIC.

"I didn't get an accurate count, but it looks like two basestars, with ten fighter squadrons and two recons patrolling the area." Lee said through the comm's

"Apollo, were you two followed." Bill said back. With the knowledge that Lee gave Bill, running from the cylons wasn't gonna be easy either. Bill had hoped that they could have been out of the system before the cylons would have found them. Guess that's out of the question now.

"Negative, no sign of pursuit. But by the way that they're deployed, I would say that they would wait for us to come to them." Lee said through the comm's.

"Bring them home" Bill said to Dee, he had heard enough. And he didn't want to put Lee and Kara any longer then necessary in possible danger.

"Thank you Starbuck and Apollo. Continue present course. Return for visuel contact and stand by for instruction." Dee said.

"Copy that Galactica, Starbuck and Apollo out."

"Lt. Gaeta stay please." Bill said to the young Lt.

"How the hell did they find us?" Saul muttered.

"Doesn't really matter they got us." Bill said back , already thinking of an escape plan.

"Why aren't they coming after us? Gaeta asked.

"Why should they. When you can sit out there and wait us out. What difference does it make to them they're machines. We're the ones that need food, medicines and fuel." Saul said with hatred.

"I'm not gonna play that game. I'm not gonna go out and try to fight them. Can we plot a jump from inside the storm?" Bill asked Gaeta. If they could be able to jump from inside the storm then they didn't need to face the cylons.

"With all this EM – interferance blocking of the FTL fix? Saul said.

"I intend to agree, sir. I don't think we could even attemp a jump until their clear of the storm trash hold." Gaeta confirmed.

"Ok, than we have to find some other way to get the cicvilain ships jump safely outside this system." Bill acknowledged

"What do you mean civilian ships, are we going to take them with us, while we attack the cylons." Saul asked, still thinking that they were going to get in a fight with the cylons instead of running.

"We're not going to fight them, sir." Laura filled in. She glanced at Bill and saw him agreeing with what she was going to say. "We're going to run, leave this solar system, find some other planet we can live on."

Saul looked up to Bill. "You're kidding right, we're just gonna run." He raised an eyebrow towards Bill.

"Yes, we are. If we want humanuty to stand a chance to survive it's the only option." Bill said looking directly at Saul.

"Alright then. So where are we going?"

Bill brought his attention back to Gaeta. "Lt. can you plot a jump to the Polmar-sector?"

"I don't know, sir. I never have plotted..."

"No one has."Bill interrupted. "Can you do it?"

"Yes, sir" Gaeta nodded and then walked off.

Saul's gaze followed Gaeta as he walked off before he brought his attention back to Bill "So, how are we going to do it. Those ships have nothing to defend them with?"

Bill turned around to the board that was standing behind him and explained his plan to Saul. "We pull the Galactica out, five clicks. The civilians will come out behind us cross the trash hold make the jump, while we hold of the cylons. Once the civilians have made the jump, every fighter has to make an immidiat combat landing and we jump."

"Hope it works." Saul muttered.

"So do I."

Xxx

Galactica had informed the civilian ships about their plans to jump out of this system. Surprisingly enough none of the ships objected it and came all willingly. They had almost reached the end of the storm and Bill could see on the dradis that Starbuck and Apollo hadn't exagerated about the amount of cylons. Seeing all the contacts on dradis made him sure of his choice to run even if he was reluctant for it in the beginning.

"Incoming. 72 cylon fighters, closing at 120.48." Gaeta shouted trough CIC

"Enenmy surpression fire, all batteries execute." Bill commanded, like it was routine.

"All batteries command firing" saul confirmed.

Bill could see the raiders approaching fast on the dradis, there was no way back now, they either make it or they don't, but at least they would die with the thought that they tried.

"Preliminary established." Gaeta shouted.

"Launch vipers."

Xxx

Lee and Kara had been waiting in the launch tube to be launched. Both pilots felt the adrenaline rush through their blood.

For Lee it would be the first real fight between him and the cylons. He had been able to safe the Colonial One from a cylon but that was different. Now he would face Gods know how many cylons and he would either survive it or not. They were launched and Lee took the lead like a CAG was supposed to do. "Broken formation, razzle dazzle. Don't let them use their target computers and for frak sake stay out of Galactica's firing solution."

Lee looked one last time around him to the other vipers and saw Kara flying on his wing. She putted a thumb up and it made Lee felt some of his nerves slide away. She looked so confident in her viper and it made Lee surer of himself. He could do it, he was after all Apollo.

Lee was killing each raider that crossed his path, but it looked like with each raider he shot down two others appeared. He knew this would be hard, but this was frakking insane. He had just blown another raider out of the sky, when a firing hit his left engine. His viper spinned a few times, but he was able to steady it again. He could hear Starbuck through his comm's "Apollo do you read me." He wanted to tell her that he was ok, until he saw a missile directly coming his way, he was paralysed, this was the end. He would never be fast enough to evade the missile. If he had two engines he probably could, but not with one. . "See you soon Zak."He murmured and closed his eyes.

Kara saw Lee's viper lose an engine by the cylon fire. He looked ok, until she saw the missile that was fired at him. She knew that with one engine he would be to slow, she immediately reacted and pushed the throttle hard to be just in time to blow the missile in a million pieces before it would hit Lee.. "Whoa, come on bitch." She said euphoric, the adrenaline shooting high. "Looks like you broke your ship Apollo" she grinned through her comm's, glad that he was still alive.

"I had worse but thanks." Lee shouted through the comm's, relief washing over him. If she hadn't been t here he would be death. He would be with his brother in the Elysian Fields and it may be the better thing to die quickly, than he didn't need to fight anymore, didn't need to run. He wasn't ready for that. Not now, when he finally had found her.

Xxx

CIC was shaking from the hits the Galactica took. Bill knew that they couldn't hold the cylons of long.

"They're targetting the landing bays, we gotta get those vipers back on a board, retrack the pods or we won't be able to jump." Saul informed him and took the speaker "Retrack the pods." He ordered.

"Status." Bill shouted.

"Last ship just jumped away." Dee informed him.

Xxx

Kara was now trying to keep the raiders away from blowing Lee to pieces. She wasn't going to let him die. Not if it was up to her. She had just found him. She also didn't want to return to the Galactica to tell Bill that Lee didn't make it. That she couldn't save him. No, that was not an option. She would try and defend him with every fiber in her heart. She heard Dee vagily say something through her comm's, but was so caught up in saving Lee's ass, that she didn't pay attention to it.

She just shot another raider when she heard the old man through her comm's. "What do you hear. Starbuck, Galactica. What do you hear?"

"What?" She shouted back, whith all the dredis falling on her canopy and the firing she wasn't quite able to hear him clearly."

"Good morning, Starbuck. What do you hear?" Bill said through the comm's more clearly now.

"Nothing but the rain." She smiled at the hearing of the dredis falling on her canopy, like rain drops hitting glass.

"Grab year gun and bring the cat in." Bill spoke through the comm's.

"Aye aye, sir. Coming home."

Lee had heard the order to pull back, but he knew that his viper wouldn't make it. He was too slow with one engine. The cylons would most likely shot him out of the frakking sky before he even could reach Galactica. And even if Kara could hold the cylons of, like she was doing since he had lost one engine, he couldn't let her risk her life for his. Not when they were in serious need for good fighter pilots. He had to let her go. He would lose her after all. "I'm loosing power. I'm not gonna make it, Starbuck. Just leave dammit that's an order."

Kara didn't want to leave him, not like that."Lee shut up and hold still." She flipped her viper and felt the G- forces slam her to her seat. It took all her strength to flip her viper, but she was Starbuck for a reason. She positioned her viper in front of that from Lee and then flew straight to his nose. She hoped that it would work, because she may be crazy sometimes, she had never pulled a stunt like this before and could only hope that it would work.

Lee saw her flip her viper and then flying straight to his "Oh no." He had met the hell of a flying Starbuck and now he was going to meet the beyond insane Starbuck.

He felt the nose of her ship connect with his plane and was relieved when he didn't blow up. He could see her sitting through his canopy a grin on her face from ear to ear.

"You are beyond insane." He shouted to her, all the stories of her and her crazy stunts that he had ever heard of her fainted against what she just did now.

"Kicking in the bud."She shouted with excitement when her stunt worked, she wasn't sure if it would work, but thank the lords it did.

They were reaching the Galactica now and Lee knew that their speed was a bit too high to do a safe landing. Well as save as possible with two vipers tangled to each other. "We're coming in a little hot don't you think?"

"No not really." Kara said more to reasure him, because she kinda figured that out as well. "Hang on!" She shouted.

They made it through the closing pods and Kara was relieved that they had reached the Galactica, that part was done. The other part, landing, would be another problem. She had to think quickly and the onlky thing she could think about was to try and land the planes on their belly and hope that they would stop, without damaging the deck too much. Or the chief would have her ass. She felt her viper hit the deck hard and both their vipers slid forward until they hit a wall and came to an abrupt stop. Her whole body was thrown back and forth in her viper and she was sure that there would be bruises from the belts.

She watched at Lee's viper and could see him sitting, still breathing and looking at her intently. She was a bit scared that they would be killed after all, but apparently the Gods once again were on her side. She will surely thank them later.

Seconds after they landed the ship jumped.

Xxx

They had made the jump. Bill turned to Dee to get the status. "Dee where are we."

"Taking a bearing now." The petty officer said. "We're in the Polmar sector. All ships accounted, sir. No cylon contact." She said a smile appearing on her face.

The people started to jubilate in CIC, congratulating each other. Hands were shaked. And Bill saw it all happening. The last 24 hours had been a hell and for the first times since the attacks. He saw his people smile and laugh. They may have lost a lot, but they didn't lose everything, they had each other and they had still something to fight for. Too fight for survival of the human race. Seeing all of this Bill had for the first times since the attacks some hope that they would get through this. Even if it was going to be a hard and long journey to real happiness

Bill saw Laura walk up to him, she hadn't left CIC, since they had shot their first munitions. She had wanted to be there during the attack, to see how it all worked. Bill had to admit that she would be a fine president after all. They may not always agree with each other, but they both wanted what was best for the people. "Congratulations, commander Adama." Laura said with a big smile on her face and she reached her hand out to shake Bill's.

"Thank you, Madame President." Bill smiled back.

Xxx

Lee saw Kara sitting through the canopy, he still couldn't really wrap his mind around how they had made it back back safely. All he knew was that he was alive and that he had to thank a crazy pilot, sitting across from him in her viper, for saving his life.

One of the deckhands opened his canopy and helped him with removing his helmet, he saw one of the other deckhands doing the same with Kara, a big grin was spread on her face. She kept her eyes on him the whole time and all he could do was look back.

He climbed out of his viper and when he hit the deck, he felt his legs almost give out, they were shaking like hell. It was like his body just now realised how close he was from dying. He only was able to stand on them because he wanted to stay on his feet to walk over to Kara. He saw her climb out of her viper and was at her viper when she hitted the deck. Her legs gave out a bit as well, she turned to look at Lee with a smile that reached her ears. Lee just wrapped her in his arms. "Thank you." He breathed in her ear.

Kara putted her arms around him and never wanted to let him go. The warmth of his body against hers made her feel wobbly all over again. And this time she was sure her legs weren't giving out because she just stepped on the hangar deck. Lee was holding her so closely and all she could do was think that she had almost lost him. "You're welcome." She said back, holding him tighter, putting her head in the crook of his neck. It was amazing how they fitted, like they were made for each other.

Lee never wanted to let her go. They kept holding each other, breathing in each other's scent, until the chief walked up to them. "Looks like you both have a guardian angel." He said to them, looking at the damage of the vipers. "Wish I could say the same of my vipers and the deck."

It was only then that Lee and Kara stepped out there embrace and looked at the damage of their vipers as well. Lee saw his viper, or what you would call a viper, it made him see that they really had to thank the gods. The whole undercarriage was scraped of both vipers and from the right side was nothing left from the impact against the wall. The only part that was a bit intact was the left side.

"You two are the luckiest and craziest pilots I have ever met." Chief continued, looking at the damage of the vipers more closely. "Most pilots would be in sickbay or dead, after a landing like this."

"Well, I'm not most pilots." Kara grinned.

Xxx

Bill had gone to his quarters. They may have escaped the cylons, there was a lot of clean up to do now. They had to fix the damage Galactica had suffered, the injured had to be treaded, the death had to be burried. On top of that they had to keep on status alert, because the cylons could appear any moment.

Bill heard a faint knock on the hatch. "Enter."

Lee walked through it. "Commander," Lee saluted.

"Captain," Bill said. "What brings you here?"After all that had happened, Bill still wasn't sure how he should address his son.

Lee walked further in, standing in front of his father's desk, who had settled himself behind it. "As I am the CAG now, I have some questions regarding the pilots." Lee started. "I'm not really familiar with their skills and I don't really know them."

"You should ask Lt. Thrace to help you with the pilots, she knows them best. She'll be able to help."

"Ok, I will." Lee said and then his gaze fell on the picture that was standing on his father's desk, the three of them standing in front of a viper. He felt the tears well up again, by seeing the picture of his now dead brother. "Dad..."

Bill saw Lee watching at the picture at knew what his son's next question would be. "Why don't we talk later Lee, Take some rest now. We have a funeral later. We talk about Zak later." Bill said nicely. He couldn't talk about his lost son.

"Ok dad. See you later." Lee said a bit disappointed in his father's reaction. He had thought that they maybe could talk now, apparently his father wasn't ready for that. It looks like it would take more than just the end of the world for them to come to terms.

"Lee, I'm happy that you're here." Bill said, knowing that he probably should say more, but just didn't know what to say otherwise.

Xxx

Almost all of the crewmembers of Galactica were at the funeral. Elosha the priest was leading the funeral.

"With heavy hearts we lift up their bodies to you, lords of kobol. In the knowledge that you take from them their burdens and give them life, eternal. We also pray that you look down up on us with mercy and with love. Just like you did on our forefathers many years ago. Just as you led us from Kobol and found the twelve worlds. So know we hope and pray that you will lead us to a new home where we may began life a new. So say we all."

"So say we all." the crew muttered.

Bill heard the despair in the voices, he couldn't allow this, if they would lose their hope and fighting will, then he could better pick a gun and shoot himself to Elysian. He stepped forward and turned around to look at his crew.

"So say we all" He said fiercely

"So say we all." The crew said a bit louder.

"So say we all."Bill said louder

"So say we all." The crew said stronger now.

"Are they the lucky ones that's what you're thinking isn't it. We're a long way from home. We jumped way beyond the red line, into uncharted space, limited supplies, limited fuel, no allies and now no hope. Maybe it would have been better for us to die quickly back on the Colonies with our families. Instead of dying out hear slowly, in the emptieness of dark space. Were shall we go? What shall we do? 'Life here began out their.' Those are the firts words of the sacret scroll. And they were told to us by the Lords of Kobol, many countless centuries ago. And they made it perfectly clear that we are not alone in this universe. Elsoha." Bill turned to the priest now. "There is a 13th colonie of human life, is their not?"

"Yes, the scrolls tell us the 13th tribe left Kobol very early, they travelled far, made their home on a planet, called earth; wich circles around a distant unknown star"

"It's not unknown. I know where it is, Earth. The most guarded secret we have. The location is only known by the senior commanders of the fleet. We dared not share it witht the public. Not while there was a cylon treat upon us. For now we have a refuge to go to, a refuge that the cylons know nothing about. It won't be an easy trip. It be long and arduous. But I promise you one thing. On the memory of those lying here before you, we shall find it. And Earth will become our new home. So say we all!"

"So say we all!" The crew said.

"So say we all!" Bill said louder.

"So say we all!" The crew shouted.

"So say we all!" Elosha said.

xxx

After the funeral Laura had gone to find Bill's quarters. She had looked surprised when Bill spoke about earth. As far as she knew there was no Earth. Yes, in the scriptures spoke about Earth and the thirteenth tribe. But they were a legend and even if there was an Earth then Bill couldn't possibly know were it is.

She found Bill's quarters and entered them after she had knocked. Bill was eating noodles when she walked in. He took another bite when Laura started. "There's no Earth. You made it all up. President Adar and I once talked about the legends surrounding Earth. He knew nothing about a secret location regarding Earth, and if the President knew nothing about it, what are the chances that you do?"

Bill looked up. He should have known that she would come and talk about it. She will probably make an issue about it. That it was a lie and that it was unacceptable that he gave his people false hope. But sometimes hope was the only thing that kept people going, Bill had learned a long time ago. And if he had to tell a lie for that then he would do just that. "You're right. There's no Earth. It's all a legend."

"Then why?"

"Because it's not enough to just live. You have to have something to live for. Let it be Earth."

"They'll never forgive you."

"Maybe, but in the meantime I've given all of us a fighting chance to survive. And isn't that what you said was the most important thing, the survival of the human race?"

He had a point Laura considered. If she was honest with herself, she would have done exactly the same to give people hope. "Who else knows?"

"No one else."

"Alright I'll keep you're secret, but I want something in return." Maybe they could come to an agreement.

"I'm listening."

"If this civilisation is going to function we're going to need a government. A civilian government run by the presidnet of the colonies."

"So you'll be in charge of the fleet, and military decisions stay with me?" Bill asked. He could live with that. He hadn't expected that she would let it slide so easily. But on the other hand, she had something in return if she kept it quiet.

"Yes."

"I'll think about it, madame president."

Laura smiled to herself, even when she gave him a fair deal, he still was his stubborn self. Well she was sure that he would agree, she had seen it in his eyes, even if he wasn't ready to admit it. She rose from her chair and they both shaked hands. She hoped that they could come to a working relationship. He, the military. She, the people.

Xxx

Kara had gone to the CAG's office to help with the schedule for the pilots. Lee had asked her to help him because he didn't know the pilots that well. Normally Kara would have hated it, but now it was like a gift from the Gods.

They had been able to fill in the most parts of the rosters. It had gone really well, with the necessary lingering looks at each other, or the accidently touches. But somewhere along exhaustion took over and she had drifted off to sleep. Lee had worked a bit further, but had fallen asleep as well now.

Bill wanted to check on Lee to see if he had settled in, before he would call it a day as well. He knew that Lee was still in the CAG's office. He entered the CAG's office and was greeted with a beautiful view. Lee and Kara were both sleeping. They lay each on one side of the desk. Kara used her right hand as a pillow and her left was stretched out, lightley brushing Lee's hand, who mirrored Kara's position.

It was a contradiction with all what had happened today. They had gone through so many emotions from joy, to fear, to sadness and grieve. They looked so peaceful, like nothing had happened. It was like all what had happened faded away by only seeing those two young people seeing so peaceful.

He didn't want to wake them and walked slowly out of the office. He closed the door behing him, so that no one could wake them.

It was going to be a long way to happy, but that didn't mean that they could create their own happiness now.

Xxx


	7. Crash and Burn

**Crash and Burn.**

_If you're under pressure  
There's a mask above your head  
Make sure yours is secure  
Befor__e you try to help your friend  
Look out the window and see the sunshine  
No more construction, destruction & dying  
I could float through the clouds with my cell phone turned off  
as high as i can go and i never belong_

_(p!nk, Crash and Burn)_

When Lee opened his eyes the next morning, it took him a few seconds to realise where he was. Slowly the events of what had happened came back to his mind. It wasn't a dream after all, it had all happened for real. The cylon attacks, the fights, the funeral, the loss of his brother, he becoming the CAG of Galactica, Kara who came in to help him with the rosters. _Would she still be here. _

Lee lifted his head from the desk, stretching the sore muscles in his neck, before turning to look at Kara. She was still sound sleep. She looked so peaceful, nothing like the pilot he had seen yesterday. Not the fearless viper jock Starbuck or the loud and insubordinate Lt. Thrace, it was just simply Kara. The girl Lee hadn't yet seen in the short time he came to know her, but was pretty sure that this Kara was someone she barely showed.

Lee saw her stiffen a bit and then slowly opening her eyes. "Hi." He greeted her with a hoarse voice thick from sleep, a grin on his face.

Kara had no idea where she was the first moments she opened her eyes. It was only when she looked a bit up and saw those piercing blue eyes watching her that she knew. _Frak_, she had fallen asleep in the CAG's office. All she had intended to do was to close her eyes for a few minutes, not the entire night. "Hey." She said back with a sleepy voice, realizing that she hadn't said something back.

They didn't say a thing to each other for another few seconds, they just kept staring to each other, all surroundings fading away, making them feel like the only two in the entire galaxy.

Life on Galactica came to life when they heard the noises in the corridors go louder and both were brought back to reality in a snap. Kara suddenly needed to get out, she needed to put her thoughts straight, because as much as she wanted to kiss him right here and now, she couldn't. There were the frat regulations? He was the CAG and she a pilot. But if Kara was honest with herself, those regulations wouldn't stop her from kissing and frakking him. No the thing that stopped her was her mother's voice in her head. "_You'll never be good enough for him, you don't deserve him, you're a screw-up, you're trash, a frakking whore." _

Lee opened his mouth to say something, but Kara beat him to it. "I should go." She said with a small voice, waving with her hands to the outside.

Lee hadn't expected that. He had thought to go to the mess together, grab some food, chat a bit before they would start briefing the pilots. But maybe it was better this way. After all he was the CAG and she a pilot. And it wouldn't be fair to Zak that he would start something with one of his pilots so soon after his death like nothing happened. No as much as he would love to kiss her, this was not the time.

Lee saw Kara just walk out of the office, when a loud explosion made the ship rock.

Xxx

Bill was on his way to start his first morning shift at CIC. He was glad that the cylons hadn't found them yet. It would give them some time to organize the Fleet. To get an idea of the supplies they had or the lack of it. In the afternoon he had scheduled an appointment with Laura. He had come to terms that she would lead the people, he only had to tell it to her personally.

Bill saluted the pilots, who had just flown their first CAP of what would become many of them, when they crossed his path into the next corridor. He almost reached CIC when a loud explosion made him fall on the ground, smashing his head hard on the ground.

He slowly tried to haul himself up, feeling some blood trickle down on his face. Everything around him looked like a blur, the dull throbbing in his head made the shouting and screaming from the people sound like he was under water. He saw some silhouettes run towards the corridor were the explosion had come from. And slowly he wobbled to the place himself. The screaming and shouting becoming clearer.

People were running out of the corridor, some covered in blood, others carrying a wounded comrade. There was chaos when Bill reached the core of the impact, all around him were dead crewman and pilots. Bill could only watch, he couldn't move, the last bit of strength he had to lead them all to safer places gone. There was no safe place for them, not anymore.

Bill looked further through the mess when he saw Dr Gaius Baltar standing against a wall, looking just as shocked as he himself looked. His eyes were locked on a dead pilot in front of him. Bill carefully made his way to the man. "Dr. Baltar what happened?" Bill asked.

Baltar slowly removed his eyes from the pilot to look at Bill. His eyes darting from the pilot, to Bill and back again before he answered. "He, euhm, he blew himself up." Baltar stuttered.

"Who?" Bill asked.

"Doral." Baltar replied. "He shouted something and then blew himself up."

"What did he say?" Bill asked, wanting to know more. He had thought that this kind of scenario's could happen. He had seen it enough in his life, people who had no hope and killed them self, but he had never thought that it would happen this soon.

Baltar didn't answer, his eyes were set on something next to him, like someone was standing next to him. "Doctor," Bill tried again.

Baltar brought his eyes back at Bill. Like he was just pulled out f a conversation with someone. "Yes. He, euhm, he said that the cylons will always find us."He began, turning his head once to his left side. "He said something more, that struck me as odd. He said that the cylons look like us now and that he was one of them as I recall." The doctor said now more confident then the last few minutes.

"You think, that's possible? Cylons taking human form." Bill asked, totally taken by surprise by this new information. This would make things more complicated.

"I think so. But if you want I can take some of his DNA, or what's left of it and test it."

"If you could do that dr. Baltar I will give you an office were you can do the research."

"Anything to help." Baltar said.

"Thank you Dr. And what you said about the cylons taking a human form, keep that to yourself. I don't want people starting to accuse each other because someone hasn't brushed his teeth this morning.

"I will, sir." Baltar nodded and then walked off.

Xxx

Laura was back on the Galactica. Earlier this morning she had started to read the scriptures again, she had once been a true believer, but since the death of her sisters she lost her faith. But now that they had no other option then to turn to the scriptures again she had started to read them again, hoping to find something that would give them some hope.

Cally one of the deckhands had offered Laura to help her with finding the office of commander Adama. The call she had received from Bill earlier made her feel a bit anxious, normally they had scheduled to meet in the afternoon, but Bill had insisted that she came earlier. She had asked why, but Bill didn't want to say anything over the comm's.

She had wanted to ask Cally what had happened, but when she saw the deckhands face, she quickly dismissed that thought. The look of grief and sadness told her enough, something serious had happened.

They were almost at Bill's office when Laura saw some people walking out a corridor with body bags, looking in the direction of where the crewman came from and Laura saw some marks of an explosion.

"We're here Madame President." Cally said.

"Thank you Cally."

"Not a problem, madame President." She greeted Laura and then walked off on her way to the deck. Finishing her work on the viper she was busy with.

Laura knocked on the hatch. She heard Bill say "enter" and walked in.

Bill was seated at his desk with a stack of papers in front of him, a glass of ambrosia within hand reach. Bill looked tired. It made him even look older then he truly was. He lifted his head up to look at Laura. "Madame President, glad you could come so early."

"No problem, commander. You said it was urgent." Laura said taking the seat in front of the desk. She noticed the patch on Bill's head "My gods, what happened to you, commander." She said shocked.

Bill sighed "We had an explosion this morning. Doral blew himself up."

"My Gods." Laura said shocked.

"7 of my pilots are killed, 20 other people are wounded and now in sick bay."

"I see, but why did he blew himself up. Do you have any idea."

Bill shifted a bit in his chair before he answered. "Baltar heard him say that he was a cylon, he is doing some tests to verify it. Apparently they look like us now."

Laura wanted to say something more when someone knocked on the hatch. "Enter." Bill called out.

Slowly the hatch was opened and Baltar walked in. "I have the results from the tests." He said, walking further in. "Doral was a cylon. I took a tissue sample and it revieled a unique chemical compound during the cremation, which is synthetic. They look like humans, they have internal organs, lymphatic system, blood... No wires, no chips."

"And now we have a problem." Bill stated. "If the cylons look like us, then anyone could be a cylon."

"That's a frightening possibility." Baltar answered.

"We need a way to identify them and that's where you come in." Laura replenished, watching at Baltar. Who was standing like he was afraid that they might bite.

"Me?" He stuttered.

"Rumour has that you're a genius." Bill said.

"Well, euh, I certainly give it my all, commander and Madame president." Baltar said now more firmly.

Xxx

Kara was seated in the commanders office. The loss of the pilots was hard on all of them. It was bad that they had lost a lot of their comrades in the fights yesterday, but it was even worse that they weren't even save on the Galactica.

The briefing after the explosion wasn't that much better, most of the pilots were in sick bay and seven other were dead. The moral under the pilots was spiralling down, they needed something to cheer them up, to give them some hope, something to fight for.

"To the pilots we've known." Bill said handing her a class with some ambrosia. They both downed a bit of the liquid, before Bill spoke up again. "I have to start training new pilots."

And there it was. She had kinda thought that it was, why Bill had wanted to speak to her. Kara chuckled. "There it is. I, euhm, kinda thought this was about that. Euhm, I don't know I'm the right person for this."

"You know someone better." Bill humoured.

"No, no. But euhm, there's almost fifty thousand people out there, you're telling me that there is not one flight instructor?"

"There is two, civilians both. I need someone to teach them combat tactics."

"You know I don't know if I may be any use to you. I wasn't the most patient."

"Don't mock me Kara. I've seen some reports of when you taught on flight school, they were all speaking highly of you. So don't give me that crap. I need new pilots and I want you to train them."

"I can do that." Kara smiled faintly. She downed the rest of the ambrosia and rose out if the seat.

Bill also rose and took a step towards Kara. Taking her in a brief hug. "Just give them the attention and the professionalism you gave my son and they will be one hell of a squadron."

Xxx

"Bone jumpers, shuttle jocks and a fleet academy wash out. This is the best that you can come up with." She said, glancing trough the papers with the names and photo's of the new nuggets, Lee just gave her.

"Diamonds in the rough." Lee answered.

"Yeah, right." Kara muttered. Her hopes that she could actually train them to become viper pilots dropping with the minute. It was hard that they didn't have simulators to start with, but it wouldn't have mattered if they had at least flew a viper. The ones she had to train had never been near to a viper.

"They're the most qualified pilots in the fleet." Lee answered.

"Great." She walked further the rec room in, looking through the papers, quickly memorizing the names with the photo of them. If she was going to teach them she wanted to be prepared. She had done it when she taught the nuggets at flight school, memorizing all their names before her first lesson started, it was easier to address them with their name immediately then to give them some number, it made the contact more personal.

_Louanne Katraine, Costanza Brendan, Conoy Leoben, Perry Donald_. Were a few of the names.

She quickly looked through her last paper, before she addressed the nuggets. They were chatting and laughing like teenager on their first day at school. One of them was slumped in one of the chairs. Kara figured that it was Costanza. Two others kept chatting. Probably Kat and Donald. Three others were playing cards. Only one wasn't talking or laughing with the rest. It was Leoben Conoy, the man kept his eyes on Kara, a smirk appearing on his face. It wasn't the kind of smirk that you have when you're glad to see someone or you have when someone tells a joke, it was a more evil grin, like he had found his prey.

It made Kara shiver a bit, but she wasn't going to show that. "Attention on deck." She called to them. No one made an attempt to do just that. "That means get on your feet nuggets." She shouted fiercely. "You are joining the colonial fleet boys and girls, not some after school club. Seats!" She ordered. "Pilots call me Starbuck. You may refer to me as God. You have all flown before, but you're about to enter a whole new world so pay attention. We don't have any flight simulators on board, so we're putting you in the cockpit. Today." Watching the nuggets, to make sure she got their undivided attention.

The grins on their faces disappearing when they all heard that they were going to be in the cockpit today.

Kara walked over to the board with the schematics of a viper. "This is the viper mark II, it's as manoeuvrable as a jack rabbit and can flip end for end in O, 35 seconds. You'll have never flown anything remotely like it, so don't think you have. Today we will be doing basic launch, approach and landing manoeuvres. Anyone not paying attention is liable to end up as a puddle of something to be host out of the cockpit by the chief of the deck." She said, emphasizing the word 'not' very clearly.

"She's lying it a little thick." Costanza whispered to Donald.

"Costanza, right?" Kara walked over him. Her face now inches away from his, daring him to say something else.

"Euhm, yes God." He said shrinking in his seat.

"Not anymore, from now on your name is Hotdog and when God speaks Hotdog, you'll listen. Maybe if you learned that at the academy you wouldn't be washed out." Giving him a wink.

"Sit up."

Xxx

Kara needed to get coffee, She knew that their first flight wouldn't be great, but never had she thought that it would be this bad. It wasn't that they wouldn't learn it eventually. They just needed more time and time was something they didn't have. Normally the viper training took a whole year and now she had to teach it to them in a couple of weeks. That's why she didn't want to do it, she didn't want to be the one to send them out to their deaths, because they didn't have enough training. So she had washed them out. Made sure that they wouldn't be killed.

Lee walked in, turning the papers she had filled in, that washed them all out. "What are you doing here Kara, you can't wash them out on their first day." Lee growled, papers in front of her.

"I can and I just did." She said coldly. She made her decision.

Lee sighed. "Look I got 40 vipers and 21 one pilots, that's it. We are sitting ducks, we can't even maintain a cap and gods forbid that the cylons show up."

"Gods forbid." She scowled. Turning to leave with her cup of coffee. "Just bring in the next group of candidates."

"The next group has never even been in a cockpit, there starting basic flight." Lee snapped. Gods why was she making it so difficult on them.

"Well then they start basic flight, because that group is done. Says so right there, maybe you should read it." Kara was on her way out, more to get away from Lee before she would do something that she would regret later. She didn't want Lee lecturing her about what she should do or shouldn't. Especially now.

"Lt. Thrace this is not a request." Lee shot her back.

Kara turned on her heels, _frak regret_, She was not gonna change her mind cuz he was gonna make it an order. Not even if the order came from a very good looking Lee Adama.

She stalked over to him and came standing before him. "Look Captain Adama, I'm the flight instructor, sir. My word is scripture, sir. I will not, repeat, not pass a pilot, who isn't ready. I will not be the one responsible for their deaths."

"So that's what this is about. It's not them. It's you. You're afraid that they won't cut it. That they will die because they don't have the experience."

"Careful." Kara said, stepping closer to Lee, so that they were only inches from each other. Feeling Lee's breath on her face and if she wasn't so reared up already, she would have him kissed right now.

"Step back." Lee said without a flinch. Daring her to make a move.

Kara glared back at him, she had no idea how Lee did it, but he was the first who could creep under her skin like this. One moment she could kiss him, the other moment she could deck him.

Lee just kept glaring back, never in his entire life had he found someone who could get him on his horse that easy. He had always been able to keep himself in line, but with her it was frakking impossible.

Before Lee could grab Kara and kiss her hard on the mouth she turned around and walked out.

Xxx

If Kara didn't want to take an order from him, then maybe she would from the commander. So Lee had gone to his father's quarters to talk about Kara's decision of washing out the nuggets. He may have let it slip if he was sure that they really had no feel for it, but he was sure that Kara failed them because she didn't want to send them out, afraid that they would die.

"If Starbuck says they can't cut it, they can't cut it." Bill said to Lee.

"She's not giving them a chance. It's day one." Lee said

"She's one of the finest pilots, I have ever seen in my life. One day in the cockpit is all she needs to know if they gonna hack it or not. She got that." Bill sighed, not really knowing why Lee doubted her decisions.

"I'm not arguing that, sir. I just think that she doesn't want to pass them because she doesn't want to be the one responsible for their deaths."

"What do you mean, responsible for their deaths?" Bill asked confused.

"She hasn't said it with so much words, but she's afraid that if she passes them and they die that she hasn't taught them well enough. That she will be the one responsible for their deaths, because she didn't train them well enough."

"I see," Bill sighed, he should have known. In those years that Kara served under him, she had always done what was right, even if it meant going against the orders of a superior officer. Even if it would compromise her own position and if she made a mistake or someone else because of something she ordered, she took it personal, as a failure of her own. "Kara takes everything she does very personal. If one of the nuggets die, and some of them will, she'll think she failed. That she didn't do the right thing, which in her eyes would be to wash them out, send them back to where they came from."

"But that's not her fault."

"We know that, but Kara doesn't think that way." Bill said in a soft voice, grinning at the flustered look Lee gave him. It gave Lee that boyish look again, the one he had when Bill had told him something that he didn't understand.

"So, what do we do? We can't just order her to not take it personal." Lee sighed.

"Just talk to her again Lee. Don't say that she shouldn't take it personal, because that won't help, but give her something she can agree with to train them."

"Like what, dad?"

"I'm sure you can come up with something. And if you haven't find a solution by the end of the day, you can come back to me and I'll talk to her."

"Ok, Thank you dad."

xxx

Lee was on his way to his bunk. The day's events had made him long for a hot shower. Only one thing was left on his to do list, talk to Kara. He wasn't looking forward to it, thinking of how she had acted before. Even shooting cylons out of the sky would be easier then to talk to her.

Lee opened the hatch of the bunkroom, to be greeted by Kara stripping of her flight suit.

Kara turned around to look who had entered at seeing that it was Lee she returned to taking further of her flight suit.

Lee sighed, he had hoped to take a shower first before he would talk to her, but now that she was here and there wasn't anyone else in. He could better do it now then postpone it. Get it over with. "Kara, we need to talk."

Kara stopped in her tracks and turned around to face Lee. "What do you want to talk about, Lee. Everything I needed to say I have said." Kara drawled.

"I haven't."

Kara snorted. "So, what do you have to say."She said in a mocking tone.

Just the way Kara acted, made Lee get irritated as well, trying to keep his composure he continued in an even tone, not betraying his feelings that were boiling up. "I know that you would feel responsible for their deaths if they die out there. So that's why you don't give them a chance."

"How would you know that, Apollo. You barely know me." Kara said her voice going louder, frustrated that he had hit the nail, although she never would admit it to him. "They just don't cut it alright! If I say they fail then they fail. I'm not gonna change my opinion."

"Godsdammit Kara, Don't tell me that none of them has some feel for it." Lee said, his voice growing louder as well.

"I stand by my decision Lee, so frak of and let me take a shower." Kara said, making an attempt to leave for the showers.

She passed Lee, but he grabbed her fiercely by her arm, turned her around and pinned her against the locker, making sure that she couldn't walk away from this conversation. Kara's head hit the locker, a twig of pain went through it. She struggled to get out of Lee's grip, but Lee placed her hands above her head so Kara was defenceless. His head was only inches away from her and his body was pressed against hers. His breath heavy and with a low voice Lee spoke to her "You're not gonna walk out of this again Kara." his piercing blue eyes locking with her hazel brown ones.

"Let go of me, Lee." She hissed through gritted teeth, trying to break loose out of his firm grasp.

"No, you're gonna listen." Lee said, moving an inch closer, so that he could almost taste her, when he spoke. "You're gonna give them another chance, reinstate their flight training." His eyes flickered to her lips, but quickly returned to her eyes again.

"No, I won't. I'm not gonna send them out their Lee. I will not be the one who send them to their deaths, because they haven't got the time to learn it properly."

"Gods, Kara. If they need more time then we give them more time. And we will not send them out in combat until you find they are ready."

"And when will that be." Kara shouted, "Gods Lee. We have barely enough pilots to maintain a cap." Kara sighed. "We need them and you know it."

Lee let his head fall to the ground, she was right, they needed them. And the sooner the better. He lifted his head up again and sighed. "I know Kara, but they aren't an asset either if they die on their first cap. You teach them the best you can. I know you're a good teacher, you've done a great job with Zak." he said with a gentle voice.

Kara was biting her lower lip, her insecurities clearly visible on her face. Lee could see all the emotion going through her, "Hey, Kara if you want I can help you with them."

"Ok," she whispered, "I'll give them another chance."

"Thank you," Lee smiled, loosening his grip on her. Kara let her hands drop to her sides, her breathing had become heavier as well, she noticed now. They both kept looking intently to each other, not daring to make a move one way or the other. Then Lee took a step back to give Kara the place to leave. She slowly pushed herself away from the locker and turned to get a shower. She needed to wash more of than just the smell and the sweat.

Xxx

For now everything went good with the nuggets, Kara had given them another chance and found renewed motivation to teach them the best she can. Lee had gone with them, Kara hadn't really asked his help in it, but he wanted to have an idea of how the nuggets flew.

"Ok, and the moral of this story is?" Kara asked her nuggets after Hotdog had left his wingman to take on Kat's viper.

"Never leave your wingman." They all shouted in choir.

Lee grinned at the response of the nuggets. The more he got to know Kara, the more he started to respect her. She had this way around people, she was the though viper pilot, the one you better shouldn't frak with, but somehow everyone respected her.

"Frak, Galactica they have found us." Kara suddenly shouted trough the comm's. "Were the hell did they come from."

Lee's grin faded and directly looked at his own dradis. 8 raiders approaching them. "I see them Starbuck, head home with the nuggets I'll try to hold them off until cap is here."

"No way, Lee. You can't take 8 raiders on your own and the cap is still too far away." Kara said through the comm's. "Ok, nuggets this is what you're gonna do. You punch the throttle as hard as you can until you reach the deck of Galactica."

"Copy that, Starbuck." They all shouted and pushed their vipers to the Galactica.

Kara turned her attention back to the raiders and Lee, when she saw the nuggets fly their vipers in safety. "Ok, Apollo, it's just the two of us, any ideas of how we're gonna do this?"

"No not really, I would say, fight them until we can't."

"Just what I was thinking. Good hunting Apollo." And Kara pushed her viper forward straight to the raiders. Lee following on her six.

The cylons approached fast, Kara was the first to open fire and directly shot one out of the sky. The raiders fired back, but Lee and Kara were both able to dodge them and shot two other raiders down. "Five to go Apollo." Kara shouted in ecstasy, feeling the rush of adrenaline.

"Wrong Starbuck, four to go." Lee chuckled, when he shot another raider down.

They were both able to shot three others down, but the last was a bit more difficult. "Frak, this one is going to that planet." She said, realising that the gravity of the planet would make it more difficult to fly there, because of the gravity that could pull them down. "I'm going after him."

They came very close to the planet, Kara felled the gravity pull at her viper, her viper shuddering more fiercely than normal, she kept her viper as steady as possible, but it asked a lot of her strength. Eventually she had a clear shot and was able to kill the raider."Haha, motherfrakker take that." Kara shouted in excitement, watching the raider fall down and bringing her viper back in a higher altitude, further from the planet. Suddenly her viper was hit by some of the dradis Kara hadn't seen. "Frak, Apollo I've been hit," She shouted, searching for the damaged parts of her viper. "Looks like my engine gave out. I'm a sitting duck."

Lee saw it all happening, he flew his viper closer to Kara's. "You Ok, Starbuck."

"Yeah, I'm fine, the only problem is I can't fly back to Galactica."

"I'll call an emergency raptor, they can tow you in." Lee said, switching his comm's to Galactica. "Galactica, Apollo. Starbuck has been hit and she needs to be towed in, can you send an emergency raptor?"

"Copy that, Apollo. Raptor is on it's way." Dee said through the comm's.

"Frak," Kara shouted.

Lee's head snapped back to Kara's

"The gravity of the planet is pulling me down, I can't do a frakking thing." She shouted, looking at her board computer.

"Wait, I'll try to push you're viper away from the planet." Lee indicated to her, having no other ideas to pull her out of this situation.

"uh, uh," Kara nodded her head in a no. "It's too dangerous, Lee. The gravity of the planet will pull us both down then."

"Frak," He threw his head against the back of his seat in desperation, hating the fact that she was helpless and at the mercy of the Gods. He could only hope that the raptor would be here in time. "How far is the raptor away." He shouted a bit desperately.

"Still two minutes away." Dee said, the usually calm voice a bit nervous.

"I don't have two minutes, Apollo. Alright this is what I'm gonna do. I'll try to land the viper on the planet and you pick me up there with the raptor."

"You're kidding right. You don't know what's down there. It may be impossible to land."

"Look Lee, it's either me piloting and have some control over it, or wait until the planet pulls me down so hard that I just smash down dead. Either way I'll end up there."

"Ok." Lee sighed. "I'll follow you on my dradis, so that we have an idea of your position."

"Good, I'll see you soon Lee." Kara said and started to turn her viper towards the planet, only steering, dradis and her comm's working.

"Be careful, Kara." Lee said in worry.

"I will." A small smile on her face at hearing Lee's last words.

Xxx


	8. Missundaztood

**Missundaztood.**

_There might be a day everything, it goes my way  
Can't you think I know I'm superfly?  
I might see the world in a world inside of you  
Then I just might say goodbye  
And its my name I know, I say it loud cuz I'm  
really proud  
Of all the things I used to do  
Cuz its the wrong track  
Lookin' for the right track  
And all you're catchin' are these tracks that I'm  
layin' down for you _

_(P!nk; Missundaztood)_

The moment Gaeta had shouted the words 'enemy contact' everyone in CIC had jumped up and CIC sprung to life. Like people on a market place, giving and taking orders from each other. It had all calmed a bit down when Kara and Lee had destroyed all the raiders, a sigh of relieve, when they were all destroyed. But before they could all turn back to their normal jobs they heard Lee's voice through the comm's again, but this time a sting of worry in his voice. "Galactica, Apollo. Starbuck has been hit and she needs to be towed in, can you send an emergency raptor?"

Bill, who had followed everything, ordered Dee to send a rescue raptor out immediately

"Raptor is on his way." Dee said.

Thinking that everything would turn out alright Bill, sighed relieved, but before he could think of a safe return he heard Lee's voice again, this time more desperate, "Galactica, how far is the raptor away."

"Still two minutes away." Bill heard Dee say, her voice calm, his eyes shifted to Dee, he could see her face. _Something is wrong, his mind prompted. _They hadn't had contact with Kara's viper, probably because she was too close to the planet and it could interfere with the contact.

Tired of just waiting Bill opened the comm's. "Lee, what's wrong?"

"Kara's viper is been pulled to the planet, because of the gravity. She needs to get as fast as possible out of the orbit of the planet, before she's pulled down and can't do a frakking thing." Bill wanted to say something, but Lee had cut off his contact to CIC again _to talk to Kara, Bill's mind prompted._

"How long till the raptor is there?" Bill roared, pacing up and down, waiting for Lee to contact them again. He could still see two dots on the dradis and one approaching, so it gave him some information. But Lee's silence made him worry.

"Still one minute away, sir." Dee said.

The seconds ticked by, but for Bill it felt more like minutes. A crack in the comm's could be heard and Bill heard Lee's voice again. "Galactica, Starbuck is gonna try to land her viper on the planet and wait for the raptor to pick her up there."

"You're kidding, has she become completely insane." Saul said in disbelief, walking towards Bill. Not really knowing if he should respect her or add her to the list of madly insane people after all. "There's no way she can land it safely. Hell we don't even know what's down there, for all we know there can be other cylons down there and we walk right in their hands."

"I don't think so." Bill said, giving Saul an angry eye, which made the man back down. Bill picked up the comm's, "Lee do you have a visual on her."

"Positive, I still see her, but it's getting harder. I still have her clear on dradis."

"Wait until the raptor is there, make sure you don't lose track of her." Bill said. "The raptor will be there in 30 seconds."

"I will."

Xxx

Her viper was shaking madly, the muscles in her arms ached from the forces se had to use to keep her plane steady, but so far she had been able to keep her viper and herself in one piece. And as hard as this was, the most difficult part would be the landing. Having no engines to adjust her speed, she would have to use a combination between hitting the brakes and floating and making sure that her speed isn't too high or too low.

The surface of the planet came really close, only rocks and sand visible. "Ok, it's all or nothing now." She muttered to herself, the shuddering of her viper increasing and before she knew her viper hit the ground with a hard thud.

It took her a minute to pull herself together and have a clear view. Kara looked at her dradis and board computer, seeing that everything was still intact made her sigh a breath of relieve. "Ok, we're still in one peace. Now we try to contact, Lee."

She adjusted her frequence to contact Lee again, She heard a crack, before she heard Lee's voice through the wireless, saying something to Galactica, but wasn't able to hear what he was saying. "Apollo, Starbuck. I reached the surface save and sound." She grinned, glad that she once again did the impossible.

The moment Lee heard Kara's voice crack through, it was the most beautiful sound he ever heard. There was a lot of interference, but that didn't matter, all that mattered was that she was alive. "Copy that Starbuck, raptor is on its way. I'll have you on my dradis." Lee smiled. "How is the view down there?"

"Best view ever, if you're into rocks and sand." Kara joked.

Waiting for the raptor to pick her up, Kara stared through the window of her canopy. Not seeing much except for dust, dust and dust. Visibility was crap, it was going to be a hard time for the raptor to make a safe landing. _Well they could use a challenge._ She could hear the wind blow hard outside, like wolves howling.

For a second the wind calmed a bit and Kara saw something black lying up ahead, she hadn't seen it before, because of the dust and sand, but now that the wind calmed down a bit, she definitely saw something lying there. It wasn't that far, barely 300 ft away, but she couldn't see what it was, still too much dust to see it clearly. "What the hell is lying there?" she muttered to herself, bringing her head a bit forward, closer to the glass of her canopy, narrowing her eyes, hoping that she could get a better view, but not really succeeding at it. "Guess we have to get out to see it."

She opened the cap of her canopy and jumped out of her viper. The strength of the wind surprised her a bit, so she had to steady herself a bit to stop herself from falling over. Kara then began to walk to the black spot, the wind making it more difficult to walk. She stumbled over a rock, she hadn't seen, but was able to pull herself up before she hit the ground.

"Frak," Kara said, quickly hiding behind a rock when she saw that it turned out to be a raider. She pulled her gun out, not that a sidearm could kill the raider, but it's the thought that counts. She slowly rose from behind the rocks, her gun aimed and ready. Slowly Kara made her way towards the raider, more sneaking then actually walking. She came to stand in front of it and bumped her gun against it, seeing no reaction at all, she let out a breath. "Haha, not bad shooting if I say so myself." She laughed, looking at the place where it had been hit.

She walked around the raider, her hands trailing it. When she reached the back of it, she was once again surprised. A couple of meters further she saw something that looked a lot like a statue, the dust making it once again difficult to have a proper view. "What the frak." She frowned and began walking towards it. It was a statue of the God Hermes, he was the patron of the travelers, Kara remembered. The scriptures once told about the God Hermes who had protected and guided the people of the thirteenth tribe to earth. On their way to Earth they had built a temple on a planet to thank him. "This can't be real, no frakking way." Kara said in disbelieve. "No way, I'm on the planet the scriptures talk about."

But every doubt she had was quickly passed aside when she saw the temple. Kara was prepared to enter the temple, but heard the sounds of a raptor approach. "Frak, better get back. Wouldn't want to miss my own rescue party."

Xxx

Kara walked out of the raptor that had picked her up from the planet. She had Racetrack write down the coordinates of the location of the temple. Even if she hadn't been able to walk inside or get a closer, Kara knew for sure that it was the temple the scriptures talked about. She remembered it so well _'And on their way to Earth, they built a temple to honor him. _

The fact that they had found it was a miracle on his own, because the scriptures said that the location of the temple was unknown and it would only reveal its location in time of great needs and desperate moments, to once again guide the people to their home.

Maybe she could convince the commander to go down their again. He may know the route to Earth, but there was a reason she stumbled on it. And Kara would do every frakking thing to go down their again, to look for something, anything even if she didn't know what she had to look for. And if she couldn't convince the commander to go down their again she could always throw in the raider she had found as an excuse.

How big were the odds that they could bring a raider aboard and examine it, strip every part of it if necessary. Yes, Kara was fairly sure that she could convince the commander to go back.

She nearly ran out of the hangar deck to make it as fast as possible to CIC, Bill would still be there considering he's still on his shift, nearly bumping into one of her nuggets. "Sorry." She muttered, not really noticing who it was, and then continued her rapid pace to CIC. _It was Leoben. _

She practically stormed in CIC, had almost everybody look like they had just seen a whirl wind pass through. "Starbuck." Bill said frowning, surprised at her entering.

"Sir," she came to a standstill and saluted him before continuing. "I saw something down there on the planet that needs some further investigation." She said, making sure that only Bill could hear her and not the whole CIC, where all of them had continued on what they were doing before she entered.

Bill frowned. "What would that be Starbuck, as far as I heard there was only sand and dust."

"No, sir. There was something else. A temple"

"A temple? Why would we want to go down there again to look at a temple?" Bill frowned.

"Sir, it's the temple of Hermes, the temple the scriptures talk about. There is a reason that we have found it. There's a reason why I ended on that planet and I'm not just gonna turn my back and walk away from it." She almost whispered, but voice firm, looking Bill straight in the eye.

Bill had to admit that when it came down to his girl, he hardly couldn't say no. Even if it was to do something he didn't believe in. And if it was only the Galactica to take in account Bill would have given her a raptor and a recon team, no questions asked. But now there was the fleet to take in account as well. "I can't Starbuck." He saw her wanting to say something, but interrupted her by raising his hand. "Not before I talked to the president." A smile appeared on his face.

Kara nodded. "Thank you, sir."

Xxx

"It seems you have quite a busy day, commander. This is the second time in a day that I'm here in your office." Laura smiled.

Bill laughed and poured him and Laura a glass. They had come to a quiet agreement that they couldn't do something without informing the other, not if there were 50 000 people to consider. "Well, it has been." Bill gave Laura her drink and settled down in his sofa next to her. "One of my pilots was stranded on the planet, we're orbiting around."

"I hope the pilot is alright."

"Yes, she is." Bill smiled, thinking that it would take more than a frakking planet to take Starbuck down. "The thing is, when she was down there she found a temple, she thinks it's the temple of Hermes, the one the scriptures talk about. She wants to go back there."

"The temple of Hermes? That's impossible. The scriptures say that the location of it is unknown." Laura said frowning, taking a sip from her drink, contemplating what she just heard.

"But they also say that it will reveal its location in desperate times and great needs." Bill answered.

"Yes, they do. But can it really be that simple. I mean nobody ever found it and now a pilot just finds it on a planet she accidently stranded on. How big are the odds?"

"Don't ask me, I'm not a believer, but Lt. Thrace says there's a reason that we stumbled on it and that we can't turn our back on it and walk away from it." Bill said, remembering Kara saying this.

"Well maybe it can give us a clue to find earth." Laura said, thinking that maybe they could really find Earth.

Bill frowned surprised, Laura noticed and continued. "I've been reading the scriptures again. Looking for some clue that can help us find a course."

"You're kidding right. You believe that stuff."

"Honestly I do." Laura cut Bill off. "The scriptures talk about the end of the worlds, the end of the human race and of the thirteenth tribe, better known as Earth. So I don't see why we won't follow that path, considering we have no clue to where Earth is."

"We don't even know if Earth exists." Bill stated, "for all we know it's just a legend."

"Their enemies will divide them. Their colonies broken in the fiery chasm of space. Their shining days renounced by a multitude of dark sacrifices. Yet still they will remain always together" Laura began, stating the scriptures. "There are people who believe that." Laura said. "And might I add that you were the one who talked about finding Earth, not me. So you can't keep them believing that you know the way to Earth if you don't give them something. They will come to realize that what you've told them is all a lie. And I'm not going to wait until that happens."

"So, you're pulling the religious card." Bill confirmed, a bit surprised. He had thought that Laura wasn't such a believer herself, maybe he didn't need to convince her to send a raptor down there. But he wasn't gonna agree that easily with her, especially because he didn't really believes.

"Yes, I'm and I would like to investigate the temple we found."

Bill had to suppress a smile, if he had thought that Kara could be convincing, then she was the master of it. Not that he hadn't made up his mind already, he just needed someone else opinion. "Ok, Madame President. I'll send a raptor down there, but that doesn't mean that I share your opinions about the Gods."

"That's fine by me." Laura smiled, she fumbled a bit with the now empty glass in her hands, considering how she could say the next. "Euhm, I think it would be wise if we were the one, who would go down there." She said not looking at Bill afraid of his reaction.

Bill frowned.

"Look, maybe we find nothing in that temple, but what if we find something down there. We know what to look for. If we send just some pilots down there, they won't search for clues to Earth, because they already think that you know where it is. And if we go down there by ourselves, we can look for it without causing suspicion." Laura explained.

"Alright, We go down there, but I want Lt. Thrace and Captain Adama there as well and I think we should take Baltar with us as well, maybe we need his help, considering he knows more of the cylons then any of us do."

"Ok, so that's settled then." Laura smiled.

Xxx

Two hours later and they had landed on the planet, Kara and Lee piloting the Raptor. Bill, Laura and Baltar seated in the back.

Lee had found it funny to see his dad, the President and Baltar in a flight suit. The last time he had seen his father in a flight school, he could barely remember. Most of the memories of his father were in dress blue anyway.

Kara had told Bill about the raider as well and he had told her that if she was able to fly it back to Galactica that she could have her way with it, so Kara was more than thrilled. _Like a child that had a new toy to play with, Lee thought. _

When Kara showed them the temple, Laura's eyes grew wider in amazement. She may be a believer and she had kind of hoped that it would be the temple of Hermes, but she didn't quite believe it until she saw it with her own eyes, making Earth and its existence all the more real.

The temple didn't look very different than any other temple, they had ever seen. The only thing giving away that it was the temple of Hermes, was the statue in front of it and the fact that it was on a planet people never saw before. Kara was the first to enter it followed by Lee directly behind her. He wasn't really impressed, he didn't believe, so for him it was just another temple.

In college Lee had once read a book about conspiracy theories. One was about a team that had jumped behind the red line, looking for cylon activities, they never returned, but as far as Lee was concerned they could have built the temple here. To prey to bring them home. And he had read a lot of those stories in college, all explaining theories that others would see as a sign of the Gods. So no, Lee didn't believe.

They came all to a standstill when they entered the center of the temple. There wasn't much light, the only light that came in was from a hole in the middle of a ceiling. On the line between the darkness and the light were twelve statues standing in a circle, like they protected the light from the darkness. Good from evil.

"They're the twelve Gods, each standing for one Colonie." Kara realized, walking closer to them, naming them all. "Zeus, Apollo, Artemis, Demeter, Poseidon, Hera, Ares, Hephaestus, Hestia, Athena, Dionysus and Hermes"

"According to the scriptures, they were the ones that lead the people to the twelve colonies after the exodus of Kobol." Laura said, studying the statues, like they were the Gods in real life.

"So what does it mean, the twelve Gods standing here." Lee questioned, having no idea why Kara and the president believed that this was so much more special than any other temple. Having no idea why they're here in the first place.

"I think I might have found something." Bill said, bringing the attention from all of them to the spot he was standing by, looking at the ground where the light that shone through, hit the ground.

They all walked to the spot Bill was standing and looked to the ground. There was some writing and a fresco. The fresco existed out nine planets on a row from variable sizes, the biggest one was standing on the left, the four next to it were the smallest, the four last were bigger, but still smaller then the big one on the left.

"In the shadow of the sun will lie eight planets, the fifth planet will be Earth." Laura said, looking at the fresco. She traced it with her fingers, stopping at the fifth planet and then continuing to trace a second fresco, one under the latter. There were 7 Gods drawn in the second one, but not the gods that they knew.

"What does this mean?" Lee said, pointing with his finger to the writings.

'_Twelve of them will appear in human form, destroying everything on their search to their new home. 7 will be known, 5 still remain secret.'_

"I don't know, I thought about the gods, but we now all twelve of them." Kara said, having no frakking clue herself.

"Maybe the 7, points to those drawn here." Laura said, pointing her finger to the second fresco.

Baltar, who had been silent all the time, when they were in the planet, almost forgotten by the rest of them, suddenly cleared his throat. "If I may say something? I think it might be the cylons they are talking about." They all looked at him dumbstruck, Baltar continued. "Seeing that they are now evolved and look like us. I think that's what they mean by '_Twelve of them will appear in human form_'. For the other part well it's kinda obvious they destroyed all of our homes and our now searching for a new home as well."

They are all watching him now, contemplating what he just told them.

"But we only found one, so you're saying that Doral isn't the only cylon, their twelve of them?" Laura asked.

"Yes, I think so." Baltar., nodded as if he has to convince himself from what he just said.

"But what do they mean by _'7 will be known, 5 still remain secret?'_" Lee asked.

"I don't know, but I'm quite sure that they mean the cylons." Baltar said, his head turning to his left side like he's listening to someone talk to him. "Now that you mention it, I think Doral said something alike. It slipped my mind, but now here in this temple I remember. He said that there were twelve models."

"Twelve models?" Bill frowned, "And you forget to share this kind of information with us."

Laura laid a hand on Bill's shoulder more to tell Bill that this wasn't the time to make a drama out of it. Bill sighed heavily, but let it slip for now. "I think we better head back to Galactica. We have all the information we could gather. We know now that there are twelve cylon models and that were on the right track to Earth, considering this is the temple of Hermes. So, there's no reason for us to stay here any longer."

"You're right, we better go back." Bill said a bit disappointed, he had kinda hoped that they would find some direction to Earth, but that was just wishful thinking. Even the fresco's didn't prove that Earth existed, for all he know this could be something that some people had built as a science project. There had been those kind of missions Bill knew.

But for Laura the temple gave her some prove that Earth existed.

Xxx

They had walked out of the temple towards the raider that lay just a couple of meters away from it. The five of them had gathered around it, even Baltar looked impressed by it.

"You sure you can make it fly?" Bill asked, looking at Kara.

"Yes, sir." Kara said with a cocky grin. "At least that's if I can make it talk again."

"Well it looks like the only thing that is damaged is here where you shot it." Lee said, waving to a hole.

"Good, then all we have to do is try to open it and get in." Bill said.

They began to search for some sort of hatch, but none of them seemed to find some opening, until Kara ducked under the raider and pushed a button. She jumped a bit when a hatch opened, reveling the inside of the raider. "Frak me, are you alive?"

"Found something Starbuck." Lee asked, looking under the raider at Kara.

"Well, I found the entrance."

"Really?"

"Yeah, but it doesn't look like it's filled with wires and chips, it's looks like they have some sort of skin. I'm gonna cut through it." Kara said, she took her knife that was tucked in a pocket of her flight suit.

"You sure, you should do that. We don't know what's inside."

"Frak, Lee don't be such a pussy, if there was something inside then it would have already killed us. Besides where is the fun if you don't take any risks." Kara bantered and she cut through it. Slime oozed out of it, but that was the only 'dangerous' thing that happened. Considering that slime couldn't kill you Kara lifted herself up and peeked through the hatch inside the raider.

"Oh, my God. You bite me and I'll bite you back." Kara said "So I guess the only thing flying you, is you." She looked quickly around, everywhere was slime and wires, the wires connected to something that looked like a giant cockroach. "This must be your brain." Kara considered and started to cut some of the wires that were connected to it. "I don't think you'll need it." She said, shoving the now cut off brain out of the raider. "Good thing that I brought one of my own."

Lee was still waiting outside, a bit anxious of what still could happen. Although it looked like Kara was sure that nothing could happen, he still didn't trust it. After all it was a cylon death or not. He wanted to ask how it was going in there when he saw something, big and pink fall out of it. "Kara, what the frak? What is that?

"I think his brain." Kara said through the wireless.

"You think? That thing looks like a giant cockroach. I thought they were all chips and computers."

"Well, think again. They look more like some sort of alien thing, soon we have to fight aliens as well." Kara mocked.

"You think you can make it fly, Starbuck." Adama interrupted, he himself very curious of how it worked.

"I guess, I don't see some major damage, only the hole I shot." Kara answered, looking for some other damaged parts.

"Ok, Starbuck. Tell us when you think you're ready then we go back to the raptor and fly together to Galactica."

"Yes, sir." Kara said and turned to fixing the raider. "Ok, first thing on the list: seal you up, figure out what controls what."

Kara was able to seal the hole with some tape that they had brought with them. "Ok, now we're gonna look for some oxygen, because I don't think I'll make it back with only my tank."

Kara scanned the slimy wires, some of them she cut through "Come on, even cockroaches have to breath, how do you?" Kara muttered when she cut one where some air flew out of it, "Guess I found it." Kara smiled, checking it with a small stick. "Ok, Now, you're gonna teach me how to fly."

Lee who was getting a little nervous wanted to get an update of the situation, maybe his dad and Kara may have found it a great idea to try and bring the raider to the Galactica, Lee hated it. After all it was made by the cylons and it was Kara in there. The only way his worries would stop is, when it's on the Galactica under heavy arms instead of in the hands of one crazy pilot. "How is it going, Starbuck." Lee said through his comm's.

"Frak Lee, just have some patience. I'm working on it." Kara said a bit irritated at Lee's impatiens and returned to figure out the controls of the raider. "Ok, every flying machine has four basic controls, power, pitch, yawl and roll. Where are yours?" Kara nearly pulled at something when she heard Lee again.

"Hold on Starbuck."

"What?" Kara shouted angrily.

"I'm gonna bring myself and the others in safety before you start to try and fly that thing." Lee said a bit shocked at her angry reaction.

"Oh, Ok." Kara said, thinking that it was probably a great idea. She heard Lee say the go and pulled at a latch. The raider opened fire and Kara quickly released it again, like she had been hit by an electrical shock. "Safety tip number one: don't touch that."

"Starbuck, are you ok?" Bill said through the wireless, a bit worried.

"Yeah, I'm fine, just the wrong latch." Kara answered. "But I think I found it, so I'lll guess that you better go to the raptor before I do some more damage." Kara mocked.

"Copy that Starbuck, We'll wait until you're in orbit as well."

"Yes, sir." Kara answered and removed her helmet. "Guess one of us needs a bath." Kara said, making a face.

Bill, Laura, Lee and Baltar were quickly at the raptor, all four of them a bit anxious whether Lt. Thrace would be able to fly the raider or not. Lee quickly fired up the raptor, this time his father as copilot and Laura and Baltar in the back. Lee looked at his father with a worried look. "You'll think she'll do it?"

"Yeah, she will." Bill smiled, awe struck by the worried of his son for her.

With the reinsurance of his father, Lee started to pilot the raptor of the planet in open space. All he could do was hope that Kara was as good as they all thought she was.

"Ok, so it either works or it doesn't." Kara said and then pushed on some sort of pedal board and the raider fired up. "haha," Kara laughed victorious, once again she had done the impossible. "Ok, ok that's power, roll, pitch and yawl. We have control. Take me home."

"You stink, but you're one hell of a flying machine." Kara smiled, flying the raider of the planet.

Xxx

Kara had been able to bring the raider aboard the Galactica safe and sound and if Kara's reaction had been one of a child happy with her new toy, than the chiefs reaction was that of a child who had received the gift from the gods themselves. Bill had found it amusing to see the reaction of all the deckhands the moment Starbuck brought it in the hangar bay, all congratulating her, patting her on her shoulder. Once again, confirming that she and only she was the best pilot ever.

It was also a morality boost for the rest of the crew, they may have killed a lot of cylons, they were never able to bring one aboard, until now. And even if they knew it were cylons that they killed, they didn't really know what they fought, but that now all changed. Thanks to Starbuck.

After the welcoming party on the hanger deck Bill had gone to his office with Laura. They may have found a cylon raider, they weren't much wiser after what they saw in the temple. If Bill had to be honest it had just made things more complicated. If it was really the temple of Hermes, then maybe the scriptures tell the truth after all and then there must be an Earth after all. Maybe without Kara, Lee and Baltar, who still thought that Bill knew were Earth was, he and Laura could get a better idea. "So, you think we found the Temple of Hermes?" Bill asked Laura, who was seated in the sofa. _She looked tired, Bill noticed._

"Yeah, I think we did." Laura sighed. Not sure if she should be relieved that the scriptures were right or not. Because if they were that would mean that she was the dying leader and she wasn't quite ready to bear that burden.

"So, how do we continue?"

"For now, we just continue the course we're following, if we are meant to find Earth, like we were meant to find the temple of Hermes than we will."

"How can you be so sure that they are right?" Bill asked.

"Faith, Bill. And the scriptures told that this was going to happen."

"Ok, but why did we find the temple, there wasn't anything that brought us closer to it. Not a map, not a road, nothing." Bill sighed.

"True, but the truth is." Laura said, looking at Bill now. "We did find something, we now know that Earth exists, that there are probably twelve human cylon models and we brought back a raider." Laura said. "And maybe we can use what we saw in the temple later. Some things don't reveal them on the moment itself."

"I hope you're right." Bill smiled.

Xxx


	9. Family Portrait

_AN: For those who are interested. The characters Sydney and Vaughn are based on the characters from Alias written by J.J. Abrams. Great series as well. _

**Family Portrait.**

_In our family portrait  
We look pretty happy  
We look pretty normal  
Lets go back to that  
In our family portrait  
We look pretty happy  
Lets play pretend, act like it  
Goes naturally_

_(Pink, Family Portrait.)_

After his morning shift Lee had gone to his locker to grab his stuff for a long hot shower that he so desperately needed. It had been tree weeks since the cylons attacked their homeworlds. After they had found the planet the crew had fallen in a routine. Not much did happen the last few days and it left everybody on their toes. It was not like you couldn't do much on a Battlestar except piss each other off. He had seen Kara have some words with Leoben the last couple of days. He didn't really know why though and last night Kat and Hotdog nearly got in a fight because Hotdog accused Kat of cheating during Triade. Then there was Boomer who didn't really get along with Skulls, well that was actually from the beginning, but yesterday she threatened Lee not to fly anymore until he had given her another partner. So Lee had putted Sharon and Racetrack together now and Skulls with Duck, who wasn't really happy either. But Lee couldn't care anymore, sometimes he wished that they had killed him during the attacks as well, so that he didn't need to do this all anymore. It's in those moments that Lee thoughts went back to his brother, who he had lost during the attacks. Wishing that they had taking him with them.

Today was one of those days.

He was glad that there wasn't anyone else in the bunkroom when he entered, because he had no need of two pilots fighting again. But his luck was quickly turned when he heard someone grumbling and with an angry pace approach the bunkroom. Once again an unhappy pilot.

"Frakking Leoben." Kara grumbled on her way to the bunkroom. They had been playing Triade, Kara and some of the nuggets. Everything was fun and fine until Leoben started once again talking about 'her destiny'. It had been the fourth time this week that he started to ramble about swimming and standing on the shore, she really didn't give a frak about it, but he just kept going and going. She had lost her temper the last three times, and showed him the furious Starbuck, but it seemed that he wasn't really impressed by it and Kara wanted it desperately to end. It reminded her of her mother telling her she had a destiny. _"You have a destiny, Kara. Why can't you see that?"_

Lee's face lightened up when he saw who entered the room, off course he should have known it was her. There was only one person in the entire fleet, who would grumble and walk like that when she was pissed off. If there was one positive thing Lee found about the attacks then it was meeting Kara Thrace, finally. Of course there were moments when he just wanted to smash her in the face and she probably wanted to do the same, but they always seemed to get passed that and go back to their playful banter and talking, enjoying each other's company. Then there were those moments when she looked at him and he looked back and in those moments he was sure that all she wants to do is kiss him, because he wants to do the same, but both of them always seemed to afraid to act on it. At least he was.

"Hey," Lee greeted silently. "Leoben again?"

"He frakking annoys me with his destiny talk, he thinks I'm destined to do great things. Rambling about a river and him standing on the shore, who cares where he stands it's not like there's a river in this open space anyway." Kara said angrily, walking to her locker.

"Maybe you should tell him that." Lee joked.

"You guess I didn't try, he just keeps rambling on. I swear if he says another word about destiny I'm gonna kill him before the cylons ever have a chance. Gods he sounds like my mother."

Kara startled when she said the latter. She hadn't meant to tell Lee about her frakked up mother and childhood.

"What do you mean?" Lee responded, when he saw her reaction.

"Nothing. Just leave it." Kara answered and turned around to her locker, she didn't want to say more then she already did. Since the day Kara had left her mother for good, she hadn't talked about her mother, the only thing people knew about her mother was that Kara never wanted to see her again and she wanted to keep it that way.

"Fine." Lee said, knowing her well enough now that he knows that he shouldn't ask further. He turned to his locker to pick up his shower gel and get that shower he so desperately wanted. When he took the bottle a picture fell out of his locker. Lee squatted to take the picture from the ground and when he looked at the picture he felt the blood drain out of his face, the more happier thoughts from just a few seconds ago passed aside to be replaced by grief and regret of his lost brother Zak. The picture showed them together after a Pyramid game they had gone to.

_After Zak had graduated from flight school, as a raptor pilot. Lee and Zak had gone out to celebrate. Going to a pyramid game was one of those things on their to do list this day. It had been a while since they had done something together. Zak needed to attend his lessons at school and Lee was at War College, the last year. Lee was glad that Zak wasn't passed for vipers, because he always knew that Zak wasn't cut out for it. Raptors were more his thing. Lee was grateful that Zak's instructor, Kara Thrace aka Starbuck, had failed Zak for vipers. Glad that she wasn't impressed that he was an Adama. He owed her. _

"_Come on Lee, you can't be serious. Sam Anders is amazing, I've never seen anybody play like he does, he's born to do this." Zak said, trying to convince his brother the last hour that Sam Anders was the best player ever. _

"_Maybe, but I still don't like to see him play. Agreed he's good, but he's not that fast though, I like shu-shaw more, she's fast."_

"_Yeah true," Zak admitted, "But Anders is more about perfection, you know the perfect throw, the perfect pass. Gods Lee I thought you loved perfection, seeing like you do it yourself." Zak sighed._

"_Hey, hey." Lee joked "I love frakked up." _

"_Yeah, right." Zak said giving Lee a playful shove. "Even all the girlfriends you brought home were perfect." _

"_True, so that's why none of them lasted." Lee joked. _

"_What? So you're waiting for a frakked up girl?" Zak laughed loudly._

"_Yes, I am and one day I'll find her and we'll be perfect." Lee said dead serious. Zak may be joking about it, but Lee meant it. He had had perfect and with none of them it felt right. He had thought that Gianne was the right fit for him, because she was the most perfect of them all. But that had gone totally wrong eventually. No, Lee never wanted perfect again. _

"_Yeah,Well let me know when you found her." Zak joked, still thinking that Lee was joking as well. _

"_I will." Lee stated. _

"_And just for the record Lee, Anders is the best player." Zak said playfully. _

"You ok?" Kara asked a bit worried. After seeing Lee's pale face.

"Yeah, I'm fine." He said quickly and then grabbed his shower gel and headed off to the showers.

Xxx

Laura was sitting on a bed in Galactica's sick bay a bit anxious, it was the first time since the attacks that she went to see a doctor concerning her disease. For now she had been able to keep it quiet, the only one who knew that she had cancer was Billy, her representative, and she wanted to keep it that way.

When Bill had asked her why she needed a doctor, she had just simply said that it was for her allergies.

Laura heard the curtains slide open and Doc. Cottle walked through, closing them behind him. "Madame President." He said with a gruff voice, walking to stand in front of Laura. "You are obviously an intelligent, well- educated young woman. Would you mind explaining to me why you waited five years in between breast exams?" Cottle asked her.

"Yes, I would mind." Laura answered back. "It's none off your business." Laura had always been afraid to take a mammographic, because she knew the day she would take one, she knew that they would say that she had breast cancer. After all her mother had died of it, so that meant that the chances were high that she would get it as well. Seeing that the doctor wouldn't settle with her answer she quickly added "I was Busy."

Cottle snorted at her answer, did she really think he would believe her. He still didn't get it why people always waited to see a doctor when it was too late. He lighted up a cigarette before saying the next. "And here you are."

"Yes, here we are. Would you mind?"

"I do actually, your doctor back on Caprica was right. It's too damn late to operate, the cancer is to far advanced. All we can do is try and trick the tumor with gamma treatments and follow that up with IV, CS and Diloxan. Did he explain to you the side effects of Diloxan?" Cottle asked taking a drag of his cigarette.

"Hair loss, nausea, muscle degeneration. I watched my mother endure two years of Diloxan before she died." Laura had sworn that the day they diagnosed cancer with her that she would never suffer like her mother had suffered just to die eventually. "I would like to explore alternate treatment."

"Prayer?" Cottle asked in disbelieve. He couldn't wrap his mind around it that such a smart woman as Laura would chose for something like that.

"Funny." Laura said dry. "Have you ever heard of chamela extract?"

"Oh, God. You're one of those." Cottle sighed, maybe prayers wasn't so bad after all.

"What if it works?"

Cottle shook his head. "All of the evidence on chamala is anecdote, it's nothing but a bunch of loose talk and false hope."

"I take that as a yes." Laura interrupted him, she didn't want to hear him telling her that it wouldn't help.

"Alright, I'll put out a med request to the civilian fleet. Maybe there's some wide eyed dreamer out there, with a secret hoard of chamala axtract in her luggage." Cottle smiled. "You can put your clothes back on."

"Thank you." Laura said back.

Before Cottle walked out through the curtain he turned one last time around to address Laura. "And for what it's worth, I would seriously consider prayer." And then walked out.

Laura felt the tears well up in her eyes. For the first time she heard the news she cursed herself for not going to a doctor sooner. Then they would have been able to operate it and she could have probably lived more carefree then now. Gods, the last time Laura really lived as carefree as possible was with her sisters.

"_Gods it's so frakking hot." Laura's younger sister Cheryl complained. Waving with a paper in front of her face to cool down. _

"_I know, I thought they said it was gonna cool down, but it's even hotter than yesterday." Sandra her other sister answered, walking in the room with the third pack of ice, holding it on her neck to cool down. "I know, where is Laura by the way."Sandra asked, looking around the room. _

"_I don't know, she said something about needing something to cool off and then took off, haven't seen her since." _

"_Yeah, all of us needs something to cool off."Sandra muttered, getting so tired of the hot weather. _

_Before her sister could complain more about the hot weather, Laura walked back into the room, dressed in a red bikini with a big smile plastered on her face._

_Both her sisters, gave her a wary look when she entered. _

"_Ok, Laura why are you walking in your bikini, We don't have a pool or anything to swim in, or did you just dig one." Her youngest sister joked. _

"_No, I didn't dig one and if you keep joking about it I won't tell you." Laura joked back. _

"_Ok, I'm sorry I won't do it again, but can you please tell us why you are walking in your bikini?" Her sister begged. _

"_You're forgiven." Laura said, "Now, if you just follow me and I will show you why I'm walking in a bikini." _

_Both her sisters jumped up from their seats and quickly followed Laura to the outside. There was no denying that it was way too hot for normal circumstances, you could see and hear it on everything, the grass saw brown instead of green, sweat immediately dripped of your skin the moment you walked outside, even the birds had reduced their chattering to only the necessary tweets, looking for shelter and cool water themselves. _

"_Ok, Laura why are we outside? I thought you had something to cool down, not warm up even more." _

"_Just watch." Laura grinned and before they could say more Laura had turned on the spray nozzle that stood there in their garden and she let the water fall on her skin. "This is heaven." She smiled, closing her eyes and letting the water fall on her skin to cool her down. _

"_This is amazing, why haven't we come up with this sooner." Sandra laughed and quickly stripped to her underwear, followed by her sister and they both joined Laura under the spray of the nozzle. _

_The next week Laura discovered a knob in her left breast. _

Xxx

Since the moment the picture of him and Zak fell out of his locker all Lee could think about was his brother. Lee had hoped that the shower he took afterwards would help to put his thoughts about Zak aside. But in fact it made it even worse, in the shower he had more time to think of him. Paperwork didn't give him mush distraction of it either, he just kept staring at the pages.

Without much thought, Lee rose from his chair out of his office on his way to who knows where. As long as it was something that would help him to put his thoughts about Zak away.

Before realization hit him Lee found himself standing in front of his father's office. Maybe talking to him about Zak would help put his mind at ease. He knocked gently on the hatch before entering.

Bill looked up from behind his desk. He was a bit surprised to see his son entering through the hatch. Normally Lee wouldn't come within another hour or two. "Something wrong, with one of the pilots?" Bill frowned. He knew that there were some problems with the pilots, but he also knew that Lee was able to solve most of them.

"Not really." Lee answered, not really knowing how to begin.

"Something else?" Bill asked surprised.

"It's about Zak."

Bill felt the blood drain from his face. He knew that sooner or later Lee would come to him and would want to talk about Zak. In fact Lee had mentioned Zak a few times in the hope to start a conversation about it, but Bill was always able to deflect the conversation. This however was different it was the first time that Lee really asked the question directly. "What about Zak?" Bill asked reluctant, hoping that maybe this time he could postpone the conversation again.

"Dad, can we talk. It's just I found this picture of him and me and…"

"Why don't we talk about it another time Lee." As much as Bill tried, he still couldn't bring himself to talk about Zak.

"No, I won't turn my back on it again. Every time I want to talk about Zak, you ignore my question or you deflect it and I let you. But I'm done dad." Lee said hard.

"Lee, not now." Bill said cold.

Lee felt his temper rise quickly at the cold reaction of his father. "Why won't you talk to me about him, is it because you wished that it was me instead of him. Because you loved Zak more? Why dad? Just tell me why?"

"That's not true and you know it. I just can't talk about him now." Bill answered.

"Then why can't you talk about it." Lee shouted, angry at his dad reaction.

"Because I can't." Bill said trough gritted teeth and glared at Lee.

"Fine." Lee stormed out of Bill's office, angry at his dad, at the people that crossed his path, at the cylons for taking their homes, at Zak for dying. Just at everything.

Xxx

CAP had been horrible for Lee, his thoughts kept going back to Zak. Lee wanted to shut his mind off, just to stop feeling what he felt now. He had kinda hoped that flying would take his mind of it, but the silence in his viper made it even worse. And if that wasn't enough, something was wrong with his viper, every time he wanted to take a turn to the left, the stick shuddered.

So here he was on the hangar deck shouting at the chief, because Lee needed someone to shout at.

"Get it frakking fixed Chief." Lee shouted angry.

"I've looked all over it, there's nothing wrong." The chief said, annoyed at Lee's reaction, for now he was able to keep himself in track, but Tyrol could only take that much and he was getting to that line.

"Then look again." Lee shouted.

That was it for Tyrol, Lee just went passed it. He almost decked Lee, but Kara interrupted him.

"Hey, hey. Stop it alright." Kara said, walking between the chief and Lee, trying to keep them on a safe distance. She had seen the scene escalate, while she was working on the cylon raider.

"Chief check it again, Lee come with me." Kara said and had to practically drag Lee of the hangar deck.

Lee followed Kara angrily. She pushed him in a locker and shut the hatch close behind them. "What are you doing, Kara?" Lee shouted angrily at her now, because the chief was out of his options now.

"What's the problem, Lee." Kara said turning around to glare at him.

"My problem, Lt. is that there is something wrong with my viper and the chief isn't looking hard enough to fix it." Lee hissed. He knew that he was exaggerating but he didn't care, he just needed someone to vent and now that person was Kara.

"I don't mean that, Lee." Kara snapped. "You've been acting like this since you saw that picture of you and Zak."

Lee's face went pale when he heard Kara say it. Had she seen it? Off course she had, nothing gets passed Starbuck, without noticing.

"Yeah, I've seen the picture Lee and we're not gonna leave until you settled this." Kara said.

"What are you gonna do Kara, you're going to tie me up on a chair and beat it out of me." Lee snapped, his anger going dangerously high.

"If necessary, Yes." Kara hissed. "Because we can't have you act like this any longer. So you're gonna talk.". She walked closer to him, daring him to say no to her.

"Tell me Kara, why would you want to listen to me, when you only know me for three weeks and my dad doesn't and he knows me practically my whole life." Lee hissed back. His anger towards his dad turning to her. He knew that Kara her intentions were good, but he was so mad at his father that he didn't care.

It took Kara a lot of strength to not just deck him right here, right now and beat it all out of him. "Because someone did the same for me once. Listened to me when I had no one else to talk too and I barely knew him. So yeah, I can listen."

Lee's angry looked softened, to be replaced by a questioning look.

"What you think I never felt like what you feel now? Well think twice Lee, because I have." Kara said, remembering the time that Vaughn had listened to her when she was in a dark place.

Lee stared dumbstruck at her, here he was thinking that it was just him against the rest of the world, or what's left of it, and here she was offering to listen to him. Even if they knew each other only three weeks. True they became close quickly, but this brought their relation to another level. "I'm sorry." It was barely a whisper, but Kara heard it. "But I don't know what to do anymore, I just miss him so frakking much." Lee said, his voice breaking, he felt the tears well up, that he had kept in place all those weeks, but this time he couldn't stop them, wouldn't.

Kara drew Lee closer to her and took him in her arms, Lee buried his face in her neck and Kara could feel him start to cry. She started to say some comforting words, hoping that they would make him feel better. Lee was mumbling something but she didn't understand him.

They both lowered to the ground, still holding each other. Kara didn't know how long they sat there. Lee crying she trying to comfort him or just give him a shoulder to cry on, but eventually Lee stopped crying and they just held each other.

"You ok?" Kara asked softly after a while. Lee just nodded. "You know Vaughn once told me that crying was sometimes better then talking" Kara smiled at him.

Lee looked at her questioning, so Kara filled him in. "Vaughn was the one who helped me when I needed someone to talk about. He was supposed to be on the Galactica during the decommissioning ceremony, guess he never made it." Kara sighed.

"You're kidding right? You knew Major Vaughn?"

"Yeah, I did. Why?" Kara asked with a questioning look.

"He was on board of the raptor Zak flew. I heard Zak say his name." Lee almost whispered again.

"Vaughn was in Zak's raptor? I never knew." Kara said so quiet that if Lee wasn't sitting so close to her he wouldn't have heard her say it.

And just for a moment Lee wasn't sure if Kara was gonna cry now.

The new information she had on Vaughn's whereabouts the last hours before the attacks made her both feel sad and angry. She had thought that they were killed in Caprica during the first attacks, having no chance of survival. But knowing that they had survived them to be eventually killed to save other people, she didn't really know how to react to that. Part of her could understand why they did it, but the other part of her wished that they didn't so that Vaughn and his wife would now would be safe on the Galactica. That she would have her best friends with her, Kara considered them as her family.

"We once went to the Zoo together." Kara began, her eyes locked on the wall behind Lee, like she was reliving the story.

"_You're kidding right, you never been to the Zoo?" Vaughn asked. _

_She and Vaughn had gone for a drink at the end of the day. It had become one of their habits, after school they went for a drink, Vaughn's wife Sydney would come there to. She and Kara had become good friends as well. It was one of the few woman Kara liked in her life. _

"_No never." Kara shrugged._

"_You mean, you never seen the giraffe with the crooked neck?" Vaughn asked. _

"_Nope." Kara giggled "Why would I want to see a giraffe with a crooked neck?"_

_Vaughn wanted to answer the question, but his wife Sydney, who had walked in minutes earlier beat him to it. "Because he's just the most lovable giraffe you ever seen." She answered, giving Vaughn a quick kiss and then took a seat at the empty chair next to Vaughn. "You know what, we're taking you to the Zoo this weekend."_

"_You're kidding?" Kara asked, eyes wide. Remembering once that she wanted to go to the Zoo when she was a little girl, whining in the hope that her mother would give in, but she just slapped Kara hard in the face and Kara never asked again to go to the Zoo. _

"_No, we're going, this will be so much fun."_

"_I don't know." Kara said reluctant._

"_Come on, Kara. Besides you don't want to miss the place where Vaughn proposed."_

_Kara jerked up in surprise. "He proposed in the Zoo?"_

"_Yes, He did." Sydney smiled, remembering every detail. "Right in front of the giraffe with the crooked neck."_

"_No wonder you guys like him so much." Kara joked. _

"_Hey, don't mock me Thrace. It was the perfect moment." Vaughn smiled. "I actually had this whole romantic weekend planned, presidential suite at the Biltmore. Candlelit dinner on the cliffs overlooking the ocean. So we went into town and Sydney wouldn't stop talking about the zoo. So we went to the zoo. I figured I had to get it over with. Then I saw how happy it made her. So that made me forget about all my stupid plans. And here we had a personal chef making this unbelievable meal at the hotel, and instead of asking her in the hotel, I proposed on one knee in sawdust in front of a giraffe with a crooked neck." Vaughn said, looking at Sydney intently._

_All Kara could do was smile when she heard the story and for the first time in her life Kara knew what she wanted, she wanted what Sydney and Vaughn had. Someone you want to spend the rest of your life with, someone who could make you feel so happy that you would shout it too the stars. "Ok, you convinced me, maybe I find the man of my dreams there as well." _

"_Great." Sydney smiled. _

"It was one of the happiest days of my life." Kara smiled sad. Somewhere during the story, tears had fallen down her face as well. Lee wiped them away carefully with his thumb.

"I'm sorry." he whispered.

"It's ok, you know. I find comfort in knowing that they died together, that they had each other. They really loved each other, completed each other." A smile appeared on Kara's face as she remembered them together.

"Some people are meant for each other." Lee said softly. The words hang there for a moment, Lee wasn't just talking about Syndey and Vaughn and they both knew it.

Silence stretched for a moment, but then Kara found her voice again, before the silence came uncomfortable. "So, don't think because I talked that you don't have to talk now." Kara said, trying to get the tension that hang earlier shrug off.

"I don't know, Kara. I'm not good at talking. The only person I really talked with about my feelings was Zak, and that was because he had always this way about getting me into talking." Lee sighed.

"What did you guys talk about?" Kara asked.

"Just stuff, who the best pyramid player was, about our choice of girlfriends, school. I remember one day that our dog had died. Zak and I were lying in the grass, looking at the clouds that drifted by. We were like eight and ten years old…

"_You think that we will see Pira again someday." Zak asked, his eyes following a bird that flew over them. _

_They had buried their dog Pira this morning. She was part of the Adama family for almost thirteen years. Bill had given her as a puppy to Caroline, so that she wouldn't feel so alone when he wasn't planet side. So the dog had been there whole Lee's and Zak's life. _

"_I don't know." Lee answered honestly, he never really believed in the Gods or life after dead, but he had also no proof that there wasn't life after death. "But, you know." Lee continued, knowing that his last answer wasn't gonna make the grief for their dog easier. "As long as you won't forget her, she'll keep living. As long as someone remembers her she'll keep living."_

"_But what if I forget her one day?" Zak asked._

"_You won't." Lee answered back. _

"_How can you be so sure that I won't forget her." _

"_Because I know that I will never forget her. She will always have a part in my heart."_

"_In mine too." Zak whispered, watching at the sky again as a big cloud drifted over them. "What if I would die." Zak suddenly asked. _

_Lee was a bit shocked at Zak's question. He had never thought about that. They were still so young, they had a whole life waiting ahead. Besides Lee was the oldest one, so it would be most likely that he would pass first. Of course there was always a chance that something could happen, but those chances were so small that Lee had never thought about it. Lee had always imagined his future with Zak involved. _

"_Then I would remember you every day the rest of my life. But you won't die, until we're both so old that we can't walk anymore." Lee joked lightly. _

"_How can you be sure that, one of us won't die sooner?" Zak asked. _

"_Because I won't let that happen, I promise. I'll protect us both." Lee could only hope that he could hold his promise. _

"_Good, then We both will grow old." Zak grinned at the image of two old brothers refusing to die until the other one let him. _

"I promised him that I would protect him, that I wouldn't let him die, that we would both grow old together. But all I could do was leave him there to die. I broke my promise." Lee said with a breaking voice. The tears in his eyes welling up again.

Kara took him in another embrace and traced with her hands small circles on Lee's back. "You didn't broke your promise Lee." She said softly.

Lee lifted up his head from her shoulder. "What do you mean I didn't break my promise? I let him die."

"You told Zak that as long as you remember someone he's still alive, You also told him that, if he died, that you would remember him every day." Kara looked at him intently. Her eyes locking with his and the blue of his eyes pierced through her core. "He is still alive. You didn't break your promise." She added softly, stroking Lee's cheek with her right hand.

For the first time since Zak died, Lee felt some of the burden he had, lift off his shoulders. Since the day Zak had died, Lee had hated himself for not being able to hold to that promise. While on the other hand, he had always kept his promise. He just needed someone to point that out and he was grateful for that.

They both kept staring to each other, none of them daring to move away or come closer to the other. And then Lee moved an inch forward and moved his hand to brush kara's cheek. He heard Kara take a startled breath at his touch, but she didn't move away, she just kept staring at him. Lee took it as a sign and moved closer, He could feel her breath, could almost feel her lips, but before their lips were able to touch each other, action stations, was called through the speakers.

Xxx

After her visit at Galactica sick bay, Laura had gone to Bill's office. She had heard action stations were called out through the Galactica and because she was on the Galactica anyway, she wanted to know what their situation was.

Bill had told her that the situation was back under control, apparently it was a false alarm. Someone in CIC had thought that a raider appeared on dradis, but before anyone else noticed, it was already gone. Never leaving a trail of a cylon raider, but just for the safety of the Fleet Bill had made them jump. You never know.

But Laura couldn't deny that Bill had something else on his mind as well. "You're so quiet Bill. Something wrong." Laura asked.

Bill snapped out of his daydream, he was currently in. He kept thinking of what Lee had said earlier and had to admit that Lee had a point. Without really thinking Bill blurted out the words. "Lee, came to me today. He wanted to talk about Zak."

"And did you?" Laura asked, knowing on the scene that she had seen earlier on the hangar deck that he probably hadn't.

"I couldn't." Bill confessed.

"Why not?" Laura frowned.

"It's not that I don't want to, I'm just afraid to say the wrong thing to Lee. Our relation wasn't so easy going. If we talked it always ended in someone hurting the other. I'm just afraid that if we talk again that I would hurt him more, because I said the wrong word and I can't lose another son."

"So, it's better not to talk to him about it. Because if it is Bill, why do I get the feeling that this isn't the solution as well. I saw Lee on the hangar deck. Lt. Thrace had to drag him away from the chief before he could deck him."

"I didn't know that Lee was so upset." Bill sighed. Apparently not talking about it didn't make it any better.

"Maybe now is the chance to talk to him." Laura tried to encourage him.

"What would I say to him. It's not like we were on the best terms the last years."

"Bill, Lee came to you on his own terms to talk, you didn't need to order him in. I think Lee would be quiet open to the things you say. Now I'm not saying that he will forgive everything that lead to the situation you're in now, but you have a chance to make it right again. Not a lot of people have that left."

Laura had a point. Here Lee was offering to talk and he just said he had no time. Guilt started to rise, Bill's eyes drifted off to the model ship that he had started too built, before the attacks. A smile appeared on his face as a memory of Lee and Zak entered his mind.

_Zak and Lee had been near the big pond they had at the back of the yard for almost the whole afternoon and Bill had been curious about what they were doing. So he went to the pond as well. Bill had been away from home for almost three months and was now, since a week, home. He was glad that he could get some down time with his sons, truth be told the relation between him and Lee had shifted, the time that Lee worshipped him was gone. The moment Bill had stepped through the door, announcing that he was home, he could see that something in Lee had changed. The young boy who jumped on his feet at the arrival of his father was gone, he was turned in a more serious boy. Their relation from playful banter had shifted to something way more complicated. Bill thought that it was because Lee was growing in to a man and hoped that now that he was home that they could get some time together to fix whatever was broken between them. _

_His relation whit Zak was still the same, but Zak was always the easy one. Bill knew that, Lee had always been the more serious one of them, but they were always able to have fun. But the last week Bill had seen Lee barely laugh like he used to. _

"_What are you boys doing." Bill asked surprised when he walked closer to the pond and saw Lee and Zak built something that looked like a raft. _

"_We're building a raft." Zak grinned, tightening one of the ropes to keep the raft together. "And then we're gonna sail with it on the pond."_

"_You're sure you won't sink." Bill smiled._

"_Yeah, we're sure." Lee said confident. "Voila all done. Now we can put it in the water."_

_They were able to put the raft in the water, and for now it seemed that it would keep floating on the water. That was until Lee went to sit on it. _

"_Frak. That's cold." Lee shouted, when he felt the water around him close in and he jumped back from the raft to the shore. _

_Bill and Zak were laughing out loud at the scene that they had witnessed. _

"_It's not funny." Lee said, trying to suppress his own smile. "I thought that it would keep floating, according to this book it should."_

"_The problem is Lee, that this book forgot to mention that you have different sorts of wood. This wood is too heavy to keep floating, especially if you go sit on it." Bill smiled, typical for Lee to do everything according to the book. _

"_So, we need to built another raft with lighter would?" Zak asked. _

"_No, there's another solution." Bill grinned. "We take some empty barrels and we put them under the raft. The air in the barrels will keep you floating. We have four barrels standing behind the garden house."_

_After they had attached the barrels under the raft they putted the raft again in the water. Lee went once again as first on it and this time it kept floating. "It worked." Lee smiled surprised._

_Seconds later Zak was on the raft as well, feeling the same excitement and surprise on their accomplishment. All Bill could do was smile, he was so proud of what his sons had become and for the first time Bill was sure that they would become fine men. _

"_Well come on dad." Lee said. "You should join us, after all you helped as well."_

_So Bill went on the raft as well and they started to sail in the pond. "I'm proud of you Lee." Bill said, when he sat next to Lee on their raft. "You did a good job, together with Zak off course." Bill smiled, seeing that Zak was going to say something as well, so he beat him to it. _

"_But it wouldn't have worked if you didn't come up with the idea of the barrels." Lee answered. _

"_Well, sometimes you have to think outside of the box and not do everything according to the book. That's something still one thing you have to learn." Bill smiled. _

"We sat on that raft for almost three hours, just peddling and sailing in our pond, laughing and talking. I never felt so proud of my sons then on that day." Bill smiled sadly at Laura. He didn't really know when he had started telling Laura this story, but somehow he had started. "I just wish that I could tell him that."

"Well, why don't you. I think that are the words Lee is waiting for." Laura smiled at him. The more she started to know the commander, the more she started to like him.

xxx

Later that evening Bill was wandering the halls of Galactica still contemplating on what Laura had told him earlier. She was right, once again. All he needed to do now was just to find Lee after all he was his only son left and he couldn't lose him as well, even if that meant with some bumps during their ride to a better relation between them.

As if the Gods had heard his thoughts, Lee crossed Bill's path. "Lee."

Lee looked in surprise when he heard his father call his name. He was just so caught up in his own thoughts that he hadn't seen him. Lee just kept thinking about what happened earlier between him and Kara. He had never thought that he would be able to talk like that to anyone except to Zak. But the talk made him feel better. "I'm sorry for earlier today." Lee blurted out.

"I'm sorry too, Lee." Bill said and took his son in a fierce hug. "I'm proud of you, son. I may not say it that much, but I am proud of you. I've known the day you and Zak had built that raft that both you guys would become fine men." And with them Bill left Lee an opening to talk about Zak. He made the first move this time. Bill felt the tears well up in his eyes again. "I love you, Lee. You're my only son left and I don't want to lose you as well." Bill said, tears falling down now. He loosened his grip on Lee to look at him. He could see the tears in Lee's eyes as well.

"I love you to dad." Lee practically cried. "And it was one of the best afternoons we had with our three." Lee answered.

Xxx

Somewhere on a basestar.

"Leoben just transmitted a message through our raider. It seems that our subject isn't as cooperative as we thought she would be. Apparently she isn't as open for destiny as we thought she was. He says he needs more time. He's gonna try another approach, but it will take more time."

"As long as he don't blow his cover, he can do whatever he wants."

Xxx


	10. Stop Falling

**Stop Falling**

_Don't assume cuz I'm a woman  
That I'll fall in love  
Don't expect I'm young and need to be took care of  
Don't wanna hear you got what I need  
Cuz how would you know before we speak  
You've gotta understand my side  
I've had a crazy, crazy life  
Nobody came along to open up my eyes  
You've gotta take what you can get  
Don't even bother with my heart  
Cuz I get a feeling I won't let it start_

_(Stop Falling, Pink.)_

The most beautiful moment of the day, Lee found out, was the morning. Just the moment before everything came to life. Before those who weren't on their shift woke up. It was in those moments that he could look at Kara carefree without her noticing. That he could trace every curve and angle with his eyes. She was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, at least in his eyes, she was. He loved the small sounds she made in her sleep while she dreamt, the steady rise and fall of her chest while she breathed, the way her lips parted a bit to breath in the recycled air. And then the few seconds before she woke up, the stirring of her body and eventually the most beautiful hazel eyes in the entire universe fluttering open. And every time she opened them, they always darted quickly to Lee's bunk, before they looked elsewhere. But Lee noticed it.

Lee had figured out fairly quickly, that Kara wasn't a morning person. Not until she had done her morning run. Every morning she woke up grumbling and cursing, it made Lee love her more.

It had been four days since their almost kiss in one of the storage lockers. It was all Lee could think about now. What if the claxons hadn't interrupted them? Would she have kissed him back? Truth was that neither he nor she had talked about it ever since. To be completely honest something had changed between them. The lingering looks, the brief touches, the playful banter between them. It was all charged with something more and neither of them dared to act on it, both afraid to lay their heart on the line. The other day Lee had found the courage to talk about what he felt for her, so he had gone in search of her, but he hadn't found her until he had to begin on his next shift and after his shift he hadn't found the courage anymore. Let's just say he had too much time to over think it again.

Lee's eyes were still fixed on Kara's bunk, when the claxons sounded through the speakers. He quickly jumped out of his bunk, seeing Kara do the same thing, hearing her curse the cylons for waking her up five minutes earlier then her alarmclock.

He had to suppress a smile at Kara's grumbling, even when the cylons showed up, she had some time to curse them for interrupting her sleep. Lee quickly turned to his locker to put on his flight suit and head to the hangar deck himself.

This was going to be one good morning. He smiled to himself.

Xxx

Kara was not in a good mood when she was launched through the launch tubes. Not that she was a morning person anyway, she knew that herself. But the last four days, sleep had become difficult. She kept thinking about what almost had happened in that storage locker between her and Lee. She knew for a fact that if the claxons hadn't sounded that day, she would have kissed him. And that scared the shit out of her, because never in her entire life had she wanted someone so badly, knowing that she couldn't have him, he was the commander's son and her superior officer. And then there was still her mother's insistent voice in her head saying that she was a cancer, that she screwed up every good thing that existed. So she had done the only thing she could to avoid a situation where she would be kissing him or the other way around. The last four days Kara made sure that they were never alone, that there was always someone else in the room, because she was sure that when they would be alone that she would not be able to hold herself in line.

The dreams didn't make it any better. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw his lips moving over hers, tasting her. His blue eyes watching at her like she was a goddess herself. It left her on edge. It frustrated her that she couldn't act on it. That she couldn't just kiss him or frak him. Last night she had gone to the gym and didn't come back until she was so tired that she was sure that she couldn't even dream anymore. Only to find out that it left her with aching muscles and the dreams were still there.

Seeing the first cylon raider approach her thoughts were brought back to the present. She shot the raider down quickly and turned to another one, approaching her. Her muscles aching from the work out she had done yesterday in the gym. "Galactica Starbuck, first raider down."

"Copy that Starbuck," Dee's voice came through, "Good hunting."

Other vipers were engaging in the fight as well. It was the first time since they had found the planet that they had another fight. There were cylon raiders everywhere. Kara didn't know which one to kill first before engaging to another one. She briefly saw Lee's viper easily taking down to raiders. A smile crossed her lips, she had never thought that someone could keep up with her flying, but Lee could.

It took Lee a while to realize that there was something wrong. There were way too many cylon raiders for them to kill and they had only lost five pilots. The cylons weren't here to kill them, his mind offered. He scanned the universe to look for something, anything the cylons were after, when he saw it. "Galactica, Apollo. The Olympic Carrier hasn't made the jump yet and the cylons are after it." He shouted and pushed his viper towards the ship.

"We know, Apollo. They have some problems with their FTL. Orders are to try and hold of as many cylon raiders as possible until they have fixed the problem." Dee's voice came through.

"Copy, that." He answered back. "All vipers, orders are to defend the Olympic Carrier until they can jump safely out of here." Lee addressed his pilots.

Kara was way too busy shooting frakkers down that she hadn't heard Lee's voice over the wireless. If she didn't know any better, she had the idea that the raiders were after her. Every time she shot one down, two others were engaging. Never leaving her a spare minute.

Somewhere along the fights she had lost Lee's viper out of sight, leaving her without a wingman. She turned her viper quickly to look were Lee's was, when she saw two raiders engaging at her. The first one she was able to take out, but the second, she couldn't evade. This was the one that would kill the legendary Starbuck, she thought by herself. Kara had already taken peace with the situation when she saw the raider explode in a million pieces. Surprised Kara looked up to see another viper.

"Can't leave you here dying." Leobens voice chuckled. And he shot three other raiders easily down. Way to easy if it was up to Kara, like the raiders even didn't try to shoot.

Kara felt relief wash in, for the first time he had walked in her class, she was actually glad that he did. "Thanks, nugget. Guess I owe you one, now hit those thrusters and head for the Olympic Carrier, I see that they can use all the help they can get."

Lee was trying desperately to defend the Olympic Carrier, but the cylons were able to break through it anyway. "Galactica, Apollo. We can't hold them of any longer. There are too many. How is there status?"

"They say they need at least another minute." Dee's voice said.

"We don't have…" but before Lee could say more he saw one of the engines of the Olympic Carrier explode, followed quickly by the one on the other side. It was too late for them, they couldn't be saved anymore. The only thing Lee could do was get his pilots back safe at the Galactica and jump out of this system. "Apollo, to all vipers. Head back to Galactica." He said and turned his viper towards the Galactica. "This fight is over." He whispered. One last time he looked to the ship and saw it explode into nothing.

They may have not lost so many pilots, but they had lost a thousand other lives.

Xxx

"Give me an update on our status." Bill asked, taking of his glasses after they made the jump. They've lost the Olympic Carrier that much he knew. He just didn't know if they had lost other ships during the attacks.

"We've lost the Olympic Carrier, sir. All the rest of the ships have made the jump and are accounted for." Dee answered him.

Saul who was reading the status report of the Galactica, walked towards Bill. This wasn't something the old Man was going to like. He cleared his throat and overlooked it one last time to see if it was right. "Sir, I have the damage report of Galactica. One of the water tanks has been hit during the attacks. We've lost 60 percent of our water supplies."

"What about the other water tanks." Bill asked.

"Still intact. But we have nearly enough water to last for a few days."

The information that Bill received needed some time to be processed. This wasn't good, this was only the second time the cylons attacked and they had already lost a ship and the water tanks of Galactica were damaged as well. If every attack of the cylons would leave them with so much damage and loss, then their wouldn't be much left of humanity in a few months.

But now even if the cylons didn't attack, with 60 percent water loss they wouldn't survive long either. Not if they kept using water at this rate. It would be an anticlimax though, them dying at a shortage of water, instead of fighting the cylons with every breath they have.

"We need to start rations and find some water recourses." Bill stated, while he overlooked the damage report that Saul had handed him. "Saul I want you to search for nearby star systems with the potential of water sources."

"Yes, sir." The man confirmed. And walked off to look for potential water sources via optical and X-ray telescopes.

Bill turned to Dee. "Dee, I want you to inform the raptor pilots that the moment Saul is back with his results for potential water sources, that they scout those areas."

"Yes, sir.'" The petite woman answered.

Bill looked around in CIC, seeing all those people do their absolute best to keep fighting even if the odds were against them, he knew that he couldn't let them down. Not as long as he was the commander. He turned around and walked to his office, there was at least one person he had to inform of their current situation. He didn't look forward to it.

Xxx

Lee hadn't left his office since he had entered it after they lost the Olympic Carrier. He wasn't sure if he had made the right call by calling the vipers back to Galactica after the Olympic Carrier lost his engines, leaving them to die. Maybe if they fought a bit longer the cylon raiders would have retreated. Then, maybe they would have had a chance to transport the people to other ships, before the ship exploded. But Lee knew as well that if they stayed longer that they would have lost more pilots and maybe the Olympic Carrier as well. It were the 'what if's" that left him doubting his decision.

Lee was so caught up in his thoughts that he hadn't heard the knock on the hatch, until he heard the click of the hatch opening.

Kara stepped through it. "Hey, you Ok?" She asked softly. She hadn't seen Lee after he had left the hangar deck and she was a bit worried, when Lee hadn't turned up in the mess for dinner. So she had gone in search of him.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Lee answered, rubbing his face with his left hand.

"You sure, because you don't look like it."

"Yeah, it's just I don't know if I made the right decision concerning the Olympic Carrier. What if we stayed a bit longer, fought a bit longer?" Lee asked.

"Then we would have lost more people." Kara stated. She knew that for sure. There was no way that they could have saved those people. "Look even if we stayed longer and were able to destroy all the raiders, there was no way the Olympic Carrier would have lasted, Both engines were destroyed and it was only a matter of time before the whole ship exploded."

Kara could see, Lee's face change with the last information, like some of the weight that he was wearing, was lifted of his shoulders. "So yes, you made the right decision."

"I just don't know if I'm cut out for it, to make such decisions. I don't know if I want to be the one who decides who lives and who dies."

"Lee, if you don't make these decisions, someone else will. And sometimes the decisions we make aren't the right ones."

"But isn't that our job, Kara. To think about our actions, To question our decisions?.

"Our job, Lee. Is to protect the people, leave the second guessing to the historians. Alright?" Kara said. She came to sit across from him. Her hand wavering over Lee's, deciding to lay it on his or not, to lay it finally lay on his. A warm shiver went through her when she made the contact. A flash of his lips moving over hers, crossed her mind. _Focus Thrace _"We may have lost over 1300 lives, but we would have lost more if you hadn't made the order to retreat to the Galactica."

Lee could only look at her. Deep down he knew that he made the right decision, but still he had doubted his decision, until Kara told him the straight facts. Leave him no choice to accept his decisions and the facts. It felt strange to Lee, but Kara somehow brought some balance in this crazy life.

Silence stretched out between them. Kara hadn't said a word, just held her eyes firmly on his. She saw Lee contemplating something, like he had something he needed to say.

Lee opened and closed his mouth, not sure if it would be a good idea to tell her about his feelings. Finally, "Kara, about what happened in the storage locker."

Kara quickly removed her hand from Lee's, her worried face from before, went pale from the moment she realized that Lee wanted to talk about the almost kiss. She wasn't ready for this conversation. Immediately bringing up her walls again. "Nothing happened, Lee. So there is nothing to talk about." She quickly added.

"You're wrong, Kara. Something did happen." Lee stated, this time he wasn't going to back down. But he felt fear creep in, had he read her wrong? He needed to know for sure. In this life much things were unsure and he could live with that, but he needed to know for sure that Kara didn't love or did love him. And Lee was almost sure that she loved him, at least up until now.

Kara shook her head in denial, more to try to convince herself from it then Lee "Nothing happened, Lee. We were on a rollercoaster of emotions and you needed someone, to comfort you and I needed someone. You were alone , I was alone, that's the only reason we almost kissed." Kara said, her voice raising, but there was some fear in her eyes that Lee all knew too well, he had seen it in his own eyes. It's the kind of fear to admit that you love someone head over heels.

So he pushed further.

"Bullshit, Kara" Lee growled. His eyes looking intently at her. He was not going to let her deny something that was so clearly hanging in the air. "Since the moment I saw you, something changed. I felt it. And I've seen you watching me Kara, yes even if you don't think I notice." Lee interrupted Kara, before she could deny that. "I've seen you wake up and every morning the first place your eyes go to when you wake up is to my bunk. So, yes there's something." He said a bit more confident as remembered that.

Kara rose angrily from her chair. "There is nothing here, you get that nothing." Her hand waving to her and Lee. There couldn't be, as much as she wanted it, for the first time in her life Kara fell in love, really deeply frakking love and it scared the shit out of her, wanting someone so much. Knowing that he could built or break her. And then there was always the voice of her mother that said that she doesn't deserve it, that she would screw it up anyway. She had to deny it, for his and safety and even hers.

Lee rose from his chair as well, when he had heard her last words. "Don't you frakking dare to deny it, Kara." His voice was razor sharp. "Why won't you admit that there is something."

"Cause it's frakking scaring the shit out of me." She shouted and then ran off. Shocked of what she just had admitted to him.

Lee was left dumbstruck at her last admission, he had expected everything else except that. Starbuck, the fearless viper jock was scared. And then he realized, this wasn't Starbuck who was scared, this was Kara who was scared.

He wanted to run after her, but the phone in his office buzzed.

Xxx

Lee docked the raptor by the books, like always. His father had informed him about the water tanks and asked him to join him to Colonial One. Lee had agreed, but his thoughts kept going back to Kara, she was scared, of him, of them. After this meeting he was gonna look her up and try and have a civil conversation with her. Try to figure things out between them. This was one fight he was not gonna back out of. He would give her time if she needed it even space, but he was not going to let her walk away, because she was afraid. Since he saw her on Galactica, correct that since he saw her that day running all he ever wanted to do was being able to wake up with her in his arms and go to sleep with her in his arms. Able to kiss her, to look in those hazel eyes and get lost, that's all he wanted.

His thoughts were interrupted by his father's hand on his shoulder. "You ok, son." He asked in a soft voice.

Lee shook his head, like he wanted to shake the thoughts out of it. "Yeah, I'm fine."

Bill nodded and then turned out of the raptor. Billy, Laura's representative, was awaiting them.

Bill couldn't bring it up to tell Laura about their current situation over the wireless. So, he had come over to inform her personally.

Bill and Lee entered Laura's office, lead by Billy. They saw Laura wipe away a number on a white board that hung behind her desk, and replace it by another one, 47 972. Bill had no idea what the number stood for, but when Laura turned around and he saw her red eyes, he knew.

"Commander, Captain." Laura greeted them, "Please take a seat." She gestured with her hands to two empty chairs.

Bill and Lee both took place in one of the seats that Laura offered and she settled herself behind her desk.

"How much more of these attacks, before they have killed us all?" Laura said softly. Not knowing if she wanted to know the answer anyway.

"I don't know Madame President. All I know is that we have to keep fighting until we can't and we will." Bill assured her. Not really knowing what else he could say to comfort her and finding it ironic that Laura thought the same as him earlier.

"When will that be, Bill? Tomorrow? Next week? Next month?" Laura smiled sadly. She knew that Bill tried to give her something to keep fighting. She just didn't know why she should keep fighting. The cancer was back, the worlds were destroyed, they were on the run for cylons and now looking for a place called Earth, where no one knew the location of and the only way to find it were the scriptures and Bill wasn't here to bring her good news either she figured out.

"I honestly don't know Madame President. But what I do know is that if we don't find some planet with water, we're not gonna last long." Bill sighed.

Voila there it was. Only she had no idea what he meant. She thought that they had water to survive at least a few years. She gave Bill a questioning look. "What do you mean?"

"During the last attack, one of the cylon raiders shot some of our water tanks, leaving us with a shortage of water. We had enough water for a couple of years, but now that some of the tanks are destroyed we won't last long."

"How much water did we lose?" Laura asked worried.

"We've lost almost 60 percent of our water reserves." Lee filled in.

"We need to go to emergency rations, shut down all laundry, showers anything none essential to the fleet." Bill said. He had already gave the order on Galactica.

Laura took of her glasses and laid it on her desk carefully. This just couldn't get any better, the list kept growing, not alone had they lost the Olympic Carrier, now they had a water shortage as well. "How long will our water supplies last?"

"On board Galactica, Six days." Lee told her. "But one third of the ships of the Fleet were depending on us. If we don't find new supplies, they'll run out of water in two days."

"That's 16000 people." Laura sighed. "Ok, I'll inform the captains of the ships to go on emergency rations."

"We have now currently a few raptors searching for some star systems with potentially water sources." Bill informed her.

A small smile appeared on Laura's face. "Thank you, commander." As long as Bill kept fighting for the survival of the human race, so would she. Because Laura knew that if Bill was by her side, there was some chance that they could survive.

xxx

After her last encounter with Lee, Kara had run off to the hangar deck. She needed to put her mind on something else. Instead of him. So she had started to work on the vipers. Not that she was doing a great job at that as well. She had been working on this viper for almost an hour now and she still hadn't done anything. Her thoughts always went back to him and what she had said. Had she really said that she was scared? Was there something more? Of course there was, otherwise Lee wouldn't have reacted that way. Gods why can't she just admit that she loves him. _"Because you're a screw up, you don't deserve him."_

"You ok, Lt." Leoben said, looking under her viper where Kara was doing something. He had seen her working on this viper for almost half an hour. And she didn't really make any progress.

"yeah, just fine." Kara sighed, he may have saved her life but that didn't mean that she was gonna be all friendly now.

Kara had hoped that Leoben would walk away now but he didn't. No he crawled under the viper himself and came to lie next to her. "I said, I'm fine." Kara growled.

"Maybe, but you have been lying under this viper for almost half an hour, figured you could need a hand." Leoben said sincerely.

"Fine, hand me the wrench." Kara gave in. She lay out her hand so that Leoben could give it to her. she didn't find it in her to fight him as well.

"Why are you doing this?" Kara asked, removing a panel from under her viper. "It's not like we're best friends and most people would stay out of my neighborhood once they've met the furious Starbuck." Kara said in a mocking tone.

"Guess, I'm not so afraid of you after all. And the reason why? I know there's something on your mind and if you want to talk about it."

"Like last time about my destiny." Kara said sarcastically.

"No, I won't talk about destiny anymore." Leoben laughed. Taking the wrench that Kara handed him back and giving a screwdriver instead.

"Good, because if you ever start talking about it again I will kill you?" Kara smiled. Maybe Leoben helping her wouldn't be so bad at all. At least she would get some work done now.

They both worked in silence on the viper before Kara blurted out the next words. "Thanks for saving my life out there."

"I would do it all over again. Couldn't let the best pilot of the fleet die, by the hands of some raiders. Especially when she's worth saving."

Kara felt a shock go through her, was he hitting on her. Leoben Connoy, one of the nuggets trying to hook up with the famous Starbuck. "Are you hitting on me?" She asked playfully, better check it out.

Leoben laughed faintly "Is it working?"

"No." Kara said bluntly. _Not as long as I have Lee in my head._ "Ok, I guess we're finished." Kara said, placing the panel back under the viper. "Thanks for the help." She said to Leoben and rolled from under it, followed by Leoben.

Leoben raised from the ground before Kara and offered her his hand to stand up. A flash of Lee handing his hand out to help her up, crossed her mind.

"Everything alright?" Leoben asked her worriedly, after he saw Kara standing like she had seen a ghost.

"Yeah, just went up to fast. Thanks." She shrugged.

"Ok, I'll see you around then." Leoben smiled.

Xxx

Somewhere on a basestar.

"We've received a message from our contact aboard Galactica. He said the attacks were a success. They've lost one civilian ship and a big part of Galactica's water tanks are destroyed as well, leaving them with a shortage of water. And unless they haven't found water in two days they won't last long." The blond woman grinned. While her hands laid in some substance that looked like water.

"Good." The oldest looking one of them answered. "So, they need to find a planet with water if they want to survive."

"What about our subject?" the grey blond haired man asked.

"He's been able to get closer to her. Thanks to the attacks. It was a good idea to put her alone with all those raiders, so that Leoben could safe her. Nice move." The blond woman grinned.

Xxx

Back on Galactica.

Dee was working on the comm's, when she heard a click and then nothing, like one of the comm's was shut off. Quickly looking at the panel in front of her, to look where the sound came from, she realized that the comm. link from the Colonial One was shut off.

"Sir, It seems that the Colonial One, has shut off their wireless contact." She told Saul Thigh. Switching some buttons to try and switch on the comm. link again.

"What do you mean, shut off?" Thigh asked.

"Well, I heard a click and then the line went dead. I thought you wanted to know, since you asked to relay all information according Colonial One to you." She answered sincerely.

Saul frowned, thinking why the hack they would shut off contact. "Try to contact them, see if they have a problem." Bill had given him command of the ship since he was aboard Colonial One.

"Yes, sir." Dee turned to her panel and tried to contact them again. "Colonial One, Galactica. Please respond." She waited several seconds, before adjusting the frequency and tried again. "Colonial One, Galactica. Please respond."

She turned her head at Saul. "Sir, they're not answering. I can't get a signal from them. It's like the lines are cut off."

The moment Saul wanted to say something more Gaeta interrupted him. "Sir, I have a vessel from the Astral Queen flying towards the Colonial One."

"I don't see the problem." Saul answered. There were more vessels flying from one ship to the other.

"Sir, There weren't any flights scheduled from the Astral Queen to Colonial One and there is something else you should know." Geata answered.

"And what would that be?"

"The Astral Queen is a ship full of heavy prisoners. Rumor is that Tom Zarek is aboard that ship."

"Frak me." Saul muttered. "Dee, contact the vessel from the Astral Queen, see if you get a response of them."

"Copy that, sir." Dee nodded, "Vessel 785, Galactica, please come in." She waited anxiously on an answer of it. Worry began to trickle in, when no one answered. So she tried again. "Vessel 785, please come in."

Saul's nerves began to get the better of him. He had hoped to get a smooth and easy command while Bill was on Colonial One, seems he wasn't lucky today. "Frak me." Why is it every time I have the ship that something happens." He muttered to himself, glad he hadn't used the bottle this time. So he could think clearly, or as clearly as possible with the headache that came up. "Alright, call Lt. Thrace and the Chief to CIC."

"Yes, sir." Dee answered and was relieved that the XO, sounded so strong. At least that meant that he had a plan or would come up with one.

Xxx

Kara was on her way to the showers when her name was shouted through the speakers of Galactica.

"_Lt. Thrace and Chief Tyrol, report to CIC."_

"Frak, can't I even take a proper shower, before they need me again?" She turned herself around, back in the direction she came from.

Gaylon Tyrol caught up with her, when she almost reached CIC. "You know why they need us." He panted, out of breath from his run from the hangar deck to CIC.

"I guess we're gonna fond out." Kara answered, when they both entered CIC.

Saul was standing over a table, flanked by Gaeta and Dee. The three of them in a deep conversation.

"Lt. Thrace and Chief Tyrol, here to report, sir." They both saluted.

"At ease." Saul muttered and shifted his gaze back to the papers that were lying in front of him. He Dee and Gaeta had already started to talk about a plan in case they needed one. But for now he assumed that the comm. link was just defect. "We have a situation on Colonial One. We've lost contact with them a few minutes ago. Could simply be a defect comm. link, but we're not sure."

"What do you mean you're not sure." Kara asked a bit irritated. Why the hell do they need her for it, if the comm. link was dead. This was more something for Dee anyway. Besides were was the old man she thought by herself.

"While we tried to contact the Colonial One a vessel from the Astral Queen was spotted flying to the Colonial One. We tried to contact the, but they didn't answer our call. Either way they have a defect comm. link as well or they're up to something." Gaeta filled them in.

"We need you two to go and check it out. If it's a problem with the comm. link then I want you to fix it chief. You will fly the raptor Starbuck. If you see anything suspicious you two are to contact us and we'll make up a plan. No heroics." Saul said, looking at Kara.

"Why can't Boomer fly the raptor?" Kara asked, it was not that there weren't other pilots who could fly a raptor. Especially of it was only to fix a comm. link.

"Boomer, Lt. Thrace." Saul dragged out. "Is currently searching for water in nearby systems together with seven other raptor pilots. Besides I want the best sniper on board of Colonial One if we need one."

"Fine." Kara growled and then turned around to put back on her flight suit.

"Lt. Thrace, you might want to know that commander Adama and Captain Adama are both aboard the Colonial One as well." Saul informed her. That will motivate her ass. He knew for a fact that Kara was never going to let anything happen to Bill or Lee.

Kara stopped in her tracks when she heard Saul say the latter to her. That's why Saul was giving the orders. That's why they want to check it out so quickly. _Frak, Lee was there. _

Xxx

"There are five systems within our practical jump dradis. All five have planetary bodies with the potential on finding water in either a liquid or frozen state." Bill explained to Laura.

"Bill, how likely are we to find water on any of these planets?"

"We don't know." Bill said in defeat. "Most planets are just all rocks or balls of gas. The galaxy is a pretty barren and desolate place, but we need to search and hope for the better."

"Do we have any idea of how much water we need to survive?" Laura asked.

"Doctor Baltar had calculated the rate of consumption regarding the basic food stuff the civilians needs." Lee added. "The current civilian population will require at minimum 82 tons grain, 85 tons meat, 119 tons fruit, 304 tons of vegetables en 2,5 million GP's of water."

"Is that for a month." Laura asked. Hoping it was.

"A week." Lee answered.

Laura opened her mouth to say something more, but before she could do that, the door was kicked open and several men stepped through it. All armed with heavy weapons.

The last one who stepped through it Lee immediately recognized as Tom Zarek.

Xxx


	11. Trouble

**Trouble.**

_No attorneys  
To plead my case  
No orbits  
To send me into outta space  
And my fingers  
Are bejeweled  
With diamonds and gold  
But that ain't gonna help me now_

_(P!nk, Trouble.)_

The flight to Colonial One lasted way to long for Kara's liking. Ever since Thigh had told her that Lee and Bill were aboard her mind kept going over his words. _"__a vessel from the Astral Queen was spotted flying to the Colonial One._" The moment he had said it, she knew that it wasn't good. No way that the wireless was defect while the commander and his son were aboard and during their visit a ship from the Astral Queen, that wasn't scheduled to fly to the Colonial One, entered only seconds later, making no contact at all with them. No this was not good.

She landed the raptor on the deck. She had her side arm clutched in her arms when they both stepped out of the raptor. It was deadly silent on the hangar deck, not a single person was around. Only the humming of the engines could be heard.

Working tools were scattered around the place, like people had just dropped them and run off. Some crates were knocked over, that showed some evidence of a fight. Fear gripped around her, there were no bodies. Which could mean two things: one they were killed and thrown out of the airlock or they were all taken hostages. She stalked towards the crates her hands slowly trailing over it. There wasn't any blood smeared over it, so it took some fear away, but it still left her with the question where they all were.

"Guess it won't be a wireless defect." The chief said in a soft voice.

"Yeah," Kara said silently, her throat thick with fear of what they might find, outside the hangar deck.

They slowly made their way to Laura's office, stopping before every corner they turned, to look for any suspicious movement. They had almost reached Laura's office when Kara heard something. She gestured to the chief to be quiet and lay low. Peeping around the corner she saw a heavy armed man standing in front of the hatch. The guy looked twice as big as her, in his hands a machine gun. Probably taken from the guards that guarded them aboard their ship. Because it was clearly not from the Galactica.

She turned back to the chief. And started to whisper. "There is one standing in front of the hatch, no way we're going to be able to take him out, before he shots us to the fields of Elysium himself."

"Is there another entrance?" The chief asked.

"Don't know, but I guess if there was they will have a man posted outside it as well."

"Maybe if we can lure him to this corner, then we can take him out." The chief offered.

"Yeah, but what if he calls for back up, then we're screwed. There's no way that we can take two of them down, not if they all look like him."

"Good point," the chief admitted. His eyes setting on the wall in front of him, thinking of another way to enter the office. "What if we crawled through the vents?" he smiled at his idea.

Kara's eyes lighted up at his idea. "Best frakking plan ever." She smiled back.

Xxx

After crawling through the vents the last twenty minutes chief Tyrol started to think that this wasn't such a good idea. His knees began to ache from the crawling and his back was sore. Worst part however was that none of them knew were to go too. They had crawled back and forth turned left and right and still hadn't found their destination. They had practically found every other room on the ship except the one holding the commander and the president. "Do you have any idea where you're going, Starbuck. Because it seems to me that if we keep crawling back and forth the commander will be long dead before we find them." He said frustrated after turning another corner.

"I don't frakking know, chief." Kara hissed, getting more and more annoyed by it herself. Seems like it wasn't such a great idea after all. "all I know is that we haven't crawled through this one and maybe this one will lead us to them." To _him_ her mind offered. Because she needed to know if Lee was safe. She didn't want things to end between them like they were now. She needed to tell him that she loved him, yes she loved him even if it scared the crap out of her. But the last twenty minutes crawling through the vents made her realize that the possibility that she could lose him was way more scarier.

They crawled further, both getting more and more aggravated by the minute. Suddenly Kara stopped crawling further and the chief nearly bumped into her. "Frak, Starbuck." He muttered. "Can't you just…"

Kara turned her head quickly to silence the chief and made a fierce gesture to keep quiet. She had heard some voices in the distant, coming through the vent. A small smile of some relief appeared on her face, they were finally on the right track.

Silently they crawled further and finally Kara saw the end of the vent. She could see all of them sitting in the room. Bill ,Laura, some other people and Lee. Seeing him made some of the tension in her body flood away.

They were all tied up and seated on the ground. Another heavy armed man was watching the people. He was smaller than the guy outside, but still bigger then her and the chief. Another man with black hair was talking talking, in comparison to the others he looked smaller, if he wasn't wearing that orange prisoners suit, he could easily blend in. No way you could see that he was a prisoner, but he was clearly in charge of the things going on down there.

"I have three conditions. First the government that controls our fate is illegal and illegitimate. And it must submit to the will of the people. I demand the immediate resignation of you Laura Roslin and your ministers. Second I demand free and open elections and a new government that represent all the people on the Fleet. And last but not least. I want the ships of the Fleet to be able to defend themselves when there is another cylon attack. I don't want to end up like the Olympic Carrier."

"We can't and won't do that." Bill growled. "You really think that we are going to give every ship weapons. After the stunt you just pulled it is clear to me that it isn't a wise idea. Before we know it every ship will take us hostage if they want something. Besides we need all the weapons we have."

"Oh, but I think you will." Zarek smirked. "You see Commander, We have the FTL drives charged with C4, and so is a room with the rest of the people aboard the Colonial One in it. So you see commander unlike you I have something to bargain with."

"You're bluffing." Bill growled. This was going to get more complicated than finding water.

"You're sure about that."

"If you blow those charges, there is no way that we are going to give you what you want."

"Ah, but that just it. You see I win either way . If you agree nobody dies and I have what I wanted. If you don't, we blow those charges, kill all those people. The people of the Fleet will blame you, eventually turn against you and voila a revolution." Zarek summed up, glorious at his master plan. "So, it's up to you now. Which choice will it be?"

"We don't negotiate with terrorists." Laura stated calmly. She knew that if they would give in so easily Zarek wouldn't stop. "There is nothing to negotiate about what you want we can't give you. You just wants to be recognized, you're crimes validated. Adar once offered you a full pardon if you would give up violent attacks, you simply refused. No deals."

"Who voted for you." Zarek shouted angry at her.

"I was sworn in under the law." Laura said icily calm. She was not going to show him that she was scared or impressed by him. No the last couple of weeks she had seen enough to know what fear was.

"The answer is no one. No one. And yet you're making decisions for all of us. Who lives, who dies. Is that democracy? Is that a free society?" Zarek shouted.

"What do you want me to say Zarek? That I shouldn't be president. The people need a government, we need rules, we need a leader."

"We need to be free men and women. If we're not free then we're no different from cylons."

Laura snapped her mouth close. Zarek made a point, and she would be willing to listen to his demands if he hadn't stormed in on the Colonial One, taking hostages to bargain with. No she couldn't give in anymore.

Kara heard the whole conversation, it seemed that neither one of them was going to give in. "Frak." Kara turned to the Chief. "We need to disable those charges. Because I don't think that they will come to an agreement very soon."

"I think you're right." The chief quickly admitted. This was going to spin out of control with three people as stubborn as them.

So once again they started to crawl their way back through the vents, looking for another room with people in it and the FTL drives.

Xxx

Finding the FTL drives wasn't so hard, considering that the chief knew where they were placed on the ship. Disabling the charges was a whole other thing.

Kara examined the charges closely to come to the understanding that she had no frakking idea of how to disable them. She had had the basic lessons of how to disable a charge on the academy, but hadn't really paid attention to it back then. It was not like a pilot needed to disable charges in a plane. "Any idea of how to disable them, chief?" Kara asked.

"I think we have to pull this wire out and then they will be harmless." Tyrol answered, studying the explosives as well.

"You think? Or you're sure. Cause I like to live a little bit longer. I know I thought of going out with a boom, but not that kind of boom." Kara said sarcastically. Looking back to the charges.

"I'm sure, but I'm not an expert." He hissed, more annoyed at the situation they were in then with her.

"Fine" Kara snapped back, "let's try our luck." She turned to pull the wire out of one of the charges, but stopped when they both heard footsteps approaching. Both turned their heads in the direction of the hatch that was still open from them entering. Neither of them moved until. The footsteps stopped. For a second Kara thought that the person would turn around and walk away, but it was wishful thinking, the footsteps once again continued in their direction. She and the chief quickly got up and placed themselves behind the hatch. The moment the guy stepped through it they sprung on him and knocked him on the head sending him to the world of oblivion.

"Good work, Chief." Kara complimented, god she had needed this.

"Not so bad yourself, Starbuck." He grinned back, looking at the unconscious guy lying on their feet.

"Ok, now those charges." Kara sighed.

The wire was cut out of the charges and they were still alive and breathing. "Never thought I would say it chief, but I couldn't have done it better myself." Kara smiled, relieved that there wasn't a boom.

"Wow, I guess this must be a rare thing getting two compliments from Starbuck whiting ten minutes." Tyrol grinned back, relieved himself.

"Don't get to fancy of yourself, we still have to find those other charges." Kara said, making her way to the hatch to look for the other charges.

A crack from a radio stopped her in her tracks. "Hey Flinn, you just have to rig the FTL drives with C4, not the entire ship." The voice mocked, after several seconds of no answering back the voice called again. "Hey Flinn, you there? Flinn…Flinn you there? Flinn for frak sake will you at least answer? Frak something is wrong Tom, Flinn doesn't answer."

"What do you mean you can't reach Flinn." Zarek asked, making his way to the man.

"I tried to contact him through the wireless, but he doesn't answer. He should have been back from putting those charges in place."

"You're right." Zarek answered, fronsing his eyebrows. "Give me your wireless." He demanded, turning his hand out to grab the radio.

Zarek grabbed it and then walked back to come to stand next to Lee Adama. "Whoever is out there, I would strongly suggest that you make yourself clear and come forward or I will shoot Captain Apollo." He said, his gun pointed at Lee's head.

Both, chief and Kara, were looking and listening intently to the wireless that they had taken from their prisoner. Both too afraid that if they breathed to loud they would miss a word, that came through it.

"Frak," Kara cursed as she heard the click of a gun through the wireless. They weren't playing around. She rubbed her hand over her face, trying to come up with a solution for the situation they were in now.

"Sir, can I make a suggestion." The chief said in a quiet voice.

"Please, do." She sighed.

"They don't know that we are with two, so if I only turn myself in, you can stay here and look for the other explosive and disarm it. And hopefully safe all our collective asses from blowing up."

"I don't know, Chief." Kara sighed. "What if they kill you?"

"I don't think they will do that, not if I come out…"

As the second ticked by, Lee started to hope that the person on the other end of the wireless was going to answer soon, because if he had learned one thing from Zarek in all those years it was that he would do anything to accomplish his goal.

"I would strongly suggest that you hurry up a bit, I'm not a patient man as you know." Zarek said.

That made Kara decide quickly. "Ok, fine you go Chief, but be careful." The thought of Lee dying did something to Kara she had only ever felt when her mother had slammed her fingers.

The radio in Zarek's hands cracked and Lee could hear the voice that would save his life through it. "Don't shoot the captain. I'm on my way."

Xxx

Lee was surprised when the door of Laura's office opened and chief Tyrol was pushed through the entrance flanked by an armed man, twice his size. Lee could see that his father was surprised as well to see his deck chief brought in on Colonial One. Off course if he had heard that the voice sounded familiar, but never in his thoughts had the chief come up. There would be no reason at all for the chief to be aboard the Colonial One…unless they had figured out that something was wrong and send some people towards the ship, but that still didn't answer the question of why the chief was here. Normally in such situations they would send in a strike team. No the Galactica had no idea of the situation they were in right now and with a man as Thigh commanding the ship it could take a while before they would notice. Lee still had no idea why his dad trusted the man so much.

"You're alone" Zarek asked

Tyrol nodded.

"How come, we didn't find you when we searched the ship." Zarek asked, he thought his men had searched the whole ship.

"I was in the bathroom," Gaylon said, "If I had known that you guys would pay a visit I would be the first to great you." he mocked.

"What were you doing there?"

"Peeing."

"Fine, put him with the rest," Zarek muttered. Irritated at his men for the poor clearing of the ship.

This wasn't making any sense. Why in the name of the Gods would the Chief be in the bathroom of the Colonial One peeing, Lee didn't understand. Top of that was that the chief acted like he didn't know him or Bill. Maybe Galactica did have an idea if the situation they were in.

Xxx

Thigh was pacing CIC back and forth, an hour had passed and he still hadn't heard from Starbuck or the Chief. He still had no idea of what was happening on the Colonial One, but he was sure that if it was just the wireless the commander would have already ordered them to transmit a message via the raptor to Galactica to tell him that everything was alright. But since he still hadn't received one message he feared the worst, he just hoped that Starbuck and the chief weren't captured or death as well.

"Dee, anything." He growled, getting more and more impatient, if he doesn't hear from them within an hour, he will go in himself, guns blazing.

"No, sir." The woman answered, her voice a calm contrast to Thigh's restlessness. She had already lost count of the times Thigh had asked her if she had heard anything from the Colonial One. And every time she had to answer the same. And this time was no different. "Wait, sir. I hear something." Dee corrected herself, straitening her shoulders.

"Put it through the speakers." Thigh said quickly.

It was Starbucks voice that came through it. "Galactica, Starbuck. We have a big situation down here."

"What do you mean?" Thigh asked.

"Zarek has the President, the Commander and Captain Adama held hostage, together with all the other people on Colonial One. They have the chief as well now."

"Ok, I'll prepare a strike team and we will clean them out." Thigh answered. "Stay where you are Starbuck."

"I don't think that's a wise idea, sir. Zarek has rigged C4 to the FTL charges, me and the chief were able to disarm them, but Zarek has also rigged some C4 to a room where the rest of the people of Colonial One are. If you come in with guns blazing they will blow them up."

"What do you suggest then, Starbuck?"

"Give me some time, I'll try and find the other explosive and disable it."

Seeing no other option, Thigh gave in. "Ok, I'll give you one hour, if I don't hear from you then I'm coming with a strike team."

"Copy that, sir."

"And Starbuck, be careful."

"I will, sir."

Kara stepped out of the raptor and before she knew it the world went black in front of her eyes.

Xxx

Lee knew that they were on a death road. He knew for sure that his father wasn't going to give into Zarek's demands and it looked like Laura wasn't going to either. So it looked like the only option was try to reason with Zarek. But that wasn't going to be an easy job either, if what he had read of Zarek was right. "You're a man of principal. I respect that." Lee began.

"Really?" Zarek asked surprised.

"The things you stood for over the years. The book you wrote." Lee could see the surprised look on his father's face. _"yeah, dad I read it."_ He wanted to say. Another thing his father didn't know about him.

"The book that we had to smuggle out of labor camp." Zarek stated as a fact.

"I read it in college. It was radical, challenging. It made me question some things, I accepted before without thinking." The surprised face from his father before was gone and was replaced by a hard fierce face.

"I stated that I'm a big hit on campus."

"You weren't the book was banned, I read it anyway." Lee said dryly. "The point is I understand where you're coming from. I understand that you want elections, because you are right we need a democracy." He could see Laura give him an angry look now as well. "But we don't negotiate while you treat us as hostages."

"So what are you saying Captain, if I release you all, you will listen to me. I don't think so. I've seen it enough. No I need something to bargain with."

Before Lee could answer back the hatch flung open again and an unconscious Kara was brought in by two heavy men. Lee could see some blood trickle down on her face from the place where she was hit. All the respect he had for Zarek was quickly dismissed and replaced by anger as he saw Kara's unconscious body.

"It seemed that there was someone else as well." One of the men said. "We found her stepping out of a raptor. We don't know if she was able to contact the Galactica."

Zarek walked towards Kara and slapped her in the face to bring her out of unconsciousness. Her eyes flashed open, quickly taking in the bearings of where she was. "I hear you were trying to save the day. Now I want you to be honest with me, did you contact the Galactica."

"Frak off." Kara hissed.

Zarek made a move to hit her in the face again, but was interrupted by Lee's strong and fierce voice. "Zarek I swear if you just touch one hair of her again I will personally make sure that you will spent the rest of your life in a cell."

Lee had no idea why or how it made Zarek stop his attempt to hit her again, but it somehow did and he was glad.

"Fine," Zarek grinned. This was going to be very interesting, if necessary he had something bigger to bargain with. "Tie her up and put her with the rest. If she moves one muscle, you shoot her in the knee." They dropped Kara next to Lee.

Xxx

48 minutes had passed in CIC since their last contact with Starbuck on Colonial One. Thigh was once again pacing back and forth. The tension that had disappeared a bit when Starbuck contacted them, was back, but twice as worse as before. Because if Starbuck didn't answer within the hour, she was captured and that was not a good thing. Thigh glanced at the clock in CIC. She still had ten minutes to contact them, but with every minute passing, the chances of succeeding in her mission were shrinking. "Dee I want you to assemble a team, we're going in."

"Sir, is that wise. We still have nine minutes." Dee answered. Somehow she still believed that Starbuck's voice would come through and tell them that everything is clear to go. But the better part of her knew it was highly unlikely that that was going to happen. Problem was now that if they didn't hear from Starbuck again they didn't know if she was able to disarm the other charges.

"Just frakking do it Dee. If Starbuck hasn't contacted us by now she is most likely caught as well. We're going in." Thigh growled.

"But what if she wasn't able to disable those charges. Then Zarek will probably kill all those people before we board the ship."

"You think I don't know that." Thigh snapped. "The moment we are on our way to Colonial One I want you to interfere with their dradis."

"Yes, sir." Dee gave in.

"Lt. Gaeta I need you to find me a blueprint of the Colonial One. We need to know where they keep the other hostages."

"Yes, sir." The man confirmed and went in search for a blue print.

"Sir," Dee interrupted. "Strike team is ready and waiting for orders."

"Tell them to wait until further notice. As soon as Lt. Gaeta is back with the blueprint we can go in."

"Sir," Dee interrupted again.

"What?" Thigh snapped.

"I have an incoming call from Boomer." She said reluctantly.

"Put her on the speakers." He growled, he just hoped that she wasn't going to bring some other bad news as well, because he had had enough for today.

"Galactica, Boomer, we have found a moon that has frozen water on the surface."

If the situation on Colonial One wasn't so bad, whole the CIC would have applauded and laughed and celebrated. Instead there were only some small smiles and sighs of relief.

"Copy that Boomer, Come on home."

Xxx

They were once again going nowhere, since the moment Kara was brought in nothing had changed. She was still a bit woozy from the blow she received on her head, but she'll live. Laura and Bill in the meanwhile had tried to reason with Zarek, but he refused every offer. And then it hit Lee. "You don't want elections or freedom or weapons on board of your ship. You just want a bloodbath."

Zarek turned to look at Lee "You don't understand." Zarek answered in defeat.

Lee kept pushing he knew he had him. "So what. Tom Zarek has been out of the news for too long. Rotting in his cell for twenty years, forgotten and now you have the chance to go out in blaze of glory."

"The moment those charges go off and kill all those people, people will never forgive them and the entire government will collapse." Zarek said angrily pointing at Laura and Bill.

"You've been saying that you're doing this for freedom, but the truth is that it's all for Tom Zarek"s death wish." Lee stated as a fact.

"Tom we have a situation going on." One of his men interfered.

"What is it." Tom snapped back.

"I just talked to Mason, he says that marines have boarded the ship and have freed the other hostages. Mason was able to escape, but he says that they are on their way now."

"Frak," zarek cursed, this isn't how he had it planned. If they just take him in custody again then he will have gained nothing. "Ok, take her." Zarek pointed at Kara.

They grabbed Kara from the ground who winced in pain. When she was brought up on her feet. Lee made a move to pull himself from the ground, but was knocked down again by one of Zarek's men. Kara saw this as an opportunity to kick the other man, making him lose his grip an her.

Immediately Zarek drew his gun and pointed it at Kara's chest. Bill rose from the ground and threw his body at Zarek, but he was a fraction to late and the gun went off.

Kara cried out in pain when the shot hit her in the leg. She fell to the ground and Lee immediately moved towards her. He could hear some people shout in the distant to hold their fire, but never looked up, he had only eyes for Kara. Seeing that she was still breathing he looked up, to see what had happened.

There were standing marines with their guns drawn to Zarek's men and Zarek himself. After that it all went easy. They were able to disarm them and tie them up.

Lee was still at Kara's side when one if the marines cutted the restraint that kept his hands bound. Lee did the same for Kara.

"You ok?" he asked a bit worried, suddenly realizing that if his father hadn't interfered Kara would be death by now.

She nodded, her hazel eyes meeting his blue ones.

Lee brought his hands to her face and traced the blood that had dried up. "I could have lost you." He said so soft that she barely heard it.

"I know." Kara whispered back and before she knew it his lips where on hers, tasting her. Kissing her like she has never been kissed before and hell she had kissed a lot. The desire and want from all those weeks being put in this one kiss. The pain that she had felt from the gun shot pushed to the background as she felt Lee's lips on hers.

They only parted when they heard someone scrape his voice. "Euhm, Lt. Thrace we need to bring you to lifestation, so that doc Cottle can look at that leg of yours." The marine said a bit dreadful at the interruption. He knew better then to interfere with Starbuck and Apollo.

"Off course." Lee blushed. He was so caught up in kissing Kara that he had totally forgotten about her leg.

Kara had to surpress a smile, it looked adorable to see Lee blush. He looked like he had been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

He slowly moved of Kara to give the medics some space and the moment he parted all he wanted to do was to lie back with her and kiss her into oblivion.

Xxx

The situation was back under control on Colonial One. The hostages were freed and Zarek and his men were brought to Galactica's brig.

Bill had heard from Thigh that Boomer had found water on a moon, the only problem with that was that it was frozen water and it would need some strong men to help and extract that from the moon. Luckily for them Laura had found a solution.

She had made Zarek a proposition. She would hold elections in seven months, when her mandate comes to an end. But in exchange she wanted Zarek and his men to extract the water from the moon. And if they could do it without further incident she wolod consider giving them the Astral Queen, without the weapons off course. Zarek took the offer.

"You want something to drink, Madame President?" Bill asked.

"That would be nice after today's events." Laura smiled from out of the sofa she was sitting in.

"Yeah, it was sure one hell of a day." Bill smiled at her, walking with two glasses back to the sofa.

"Well Zarek accepted the deal, so we don't need to worry anymore of how to extract water from that moon. And at least some of the events turned for the better." Laura chuckled, thinking of how Lee had kissed Lt. Thrace.

Bill couldn't quiet follow, until he remembered Lee openly kissing Kara on the ground. It was something he had never thought his son would do in public. Normally Lee was always so guarded when it comes to feelings. Apparently not if it came to Kara. "I don't know where that came from." Bill chuckled. "Guess we're going to need to change the fraternization rules as well."

"Guess so." Laura took another sip from her glass, "How is she?"

"They have taking her in surgery to remove the bullet, but there wouldn't be any permanent damage." Bill filled her in.

"Thank the Gods, she's quite a girl." Laura smiled.

"Yes, she is."

Xxx

Lee hadn't left life station from the moment Kara was brought in. She was brought just back from surgery and Doc. Cottle had told him that she would wake up pretty soon. So now he was waiting at her bed side until she woke up. Doc. Cottle had reassured him that everything was going to heal just fine, only that she wasn't going to be in a cockpit any time soon.

His dad had been in life station at well to check up on Kara and had asked Lee's intention with her. Off course he had seen them kissing, in fact everyone who was there had. It was not that they were very discrete, but then again when were Starbuck and Apollo ever discrete. But what had surprised Lee was that his father was fine with it. He had thought that his father would make a whole scene of it, but it was nothing like that. The only thing he had said was that as long as it didn't interfere with their working situation he was fine with it.

Lee's attention was brought back to Kara when he heard a small groan and then saw Kara's eyes fluttered open.

Lee bent over her, stroking her hair. "Hey," he said quietly a smile on his face.

"Hey." Kara smiled back. Her voice thick from the sleep. "you haven't been sitting here all the time, have you?" Kara asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes I did." Lee smiled. "Couldn't let you wake up alone, since you practically saved us all." Then he bent over her again and placed a small kiss on her lips. Kara responded easily, she could get used to it.

Lee slowly withdraw. Which made Kara groan in frustration. "So, there is still nothing between us?"

"No, there's definitely something." Kara stated and pulled Lee's head back to hers so she could kiss him again. But before she was lost in Lee's kiss, she could see that something had moved from behind the curtain, she never saw who it was and frankly she didn't care.

Xxx

On the basestar.

"I just received a transmission from Leoben again." The three said, his hands still in the water. "Apparently 'the talk' wasn't enough. We need something else."

"Already working on it." A Doral model answered.

xxx


End file.
